Do you remember Ana, my elderly neighbour for whom I made the hanten?

[remittancegirl@mstdn.social]

Do you remember Ana, my elderly neighbour for whom I made the hanten?

Well, she dropped by to wish me happy 3 Kings day, and gave me this beautiful, huge bottle of extra virgin, Hojiblanca 100% ecological olive oil. It came from her family’s orchard and was pressed by her son.

It has the scent of freshly cut grass with a little hint of thyme.

And I don’t know how I am going to use it all up before it goes off.

[max@poliverso.org]

@Remittancegirl

Get a slice of very good bread, you could toast it a little bit but only a little bit as it must stay soft, put some salt on it and pour the oil. Be generous with the oil, a veil is not enough, a flood is enough.

I discovered this way of enjoying high quality oil when I moved to Tuscany (IT) where they have the best oil I've ever tasted.

Be careful, it's more addictive than Fentanyl 😁

[iris@neuromatch.social]

@Remittancegirl oh how glorious! I would make a lot of pesto, I think.

[remittancegirl@mstdn.social]

@iris I’m really not very keen on any of the pestos I’ve eaten. But my experience is limited, so I might have to take your advice and explore further! Thank you!

[iris@neuromatch.social]

@Remittancegirl this is the closest I could find to the recipe I found some time ago, and has some great procedural tips: https://www.recipesfromitaly.com/original-pesto-genovese-recipe/

You can simplify it down to basil, olive oil, and parmesan at minimum. Parmesan could be substituted for grana padano but anything further would be a very different taste. I find garlic to be a critical additive. The recipe I used called for mincing everything as finely as possible by hand, and it took ages but was exceptional. My policy is to stick as closely as possible to a good recipe the first time doing something, and this one was worth it!

[valhalla@social.gl-como.it]

@iris @Remittancegirl people from Italy who have lived in Genova own the traditional stone mortar and wooden pestle to make pesto properly

and then use a stick blender :D

(making it by hand is more effort than using the blender, but not that much. cleaning the mortar is a hassle and not really worth the taste difference)