Pesto Pasta

I have recently been to Italy and still am missing the amazing food. I was never a big fan of Italian food until I happened to taste it in Rome, Florence etc and I can tell you, I just fell in love with everything I ate! Even the Pizza! and Pesto Pasta!! Top two things I would always run away from.

So much so, that the moment I mentioned that it might be hard to replicate it in India, given that it's so difficult to find such high quality ingredients, my brother took an offence and ordered basil leaves when I was out of city. And ever since I came back, he has been pestering me to use them.

Anyway, Chef Kumar woke up today and decided precisely at 8 PM that we should make pesto sauce today. While the Parmesan was missing and needs to be added to the processor tomorrow, here is the recipe I used

Ingredients (depending on serving size you would like to choose) - though I can share upfront, that I chose the one in middle with 0.75 cup of basil leaves and let me tell you, that with my brother around, it will barely be enough for 2 people - leave alone 6.

And there are two methods - one without cream and other with one. I followed the one without cream. I think oil could be a lot less than what appeared in the recipe. For one serving, use ~100 gm pasta.

	Servings	1	2	3	4	5
Ingredients	Measure
Basil leaves	Cup	0.5	1.0	1.5	2	2.5
Parmesan	Cup	0.25	0.5	0.75	1	1.25
Pine nuts + Walnuts	Tbsp	2	4	6	8	10
Garlic	Gloves	0.7	1.3	2.0	2.7	3.3
Extra virgin olive oil	Cup	0.05	0.1	0.15	0.2	0.3
Heavy Cream	Cup	0.2	0.3	0.5	0.7	0.8
Salted Butter	Tbsp	0.7	1.3	2.0	2.7	3.3
Salt	To taste				I used 2 tsp
Pepper	To taste				1 used 1 tsp

METHOD 1 - Pesto cream sauce (this is inspired from the site - certifiedpastryaficianado)

1. Toast pine nuts and garlic (still in peel) in a small saute pan over medium heat for 1 minute. Remove garlic and roast pinenuts till they get dark golden brown, about 2 more minutes. 
2. Remove garlic from peel and place into food processor with basil leaves, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and salt and pepper to taste. Begin processing, drizzling in olive oil while it mixes. Set aside.
3. Add cream and salted butter to saute pan over medium-low heat and bring to a simmer, Add pesto and combine. Heat through for a minute or so until hot. Add pasta (al-dente) to pan 

METHOD 2 –  Basic Pesto sauce

1. Peel the garlic, then pound in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of sea salt.
2. Pick, roughly chop and add the basil leaves, then bash to a paste (or pulse in a food processor).
3. Add the pine nuts (very lightly toast first, if you like) to the mixture and pound again, then stir in half the Parmesan.
4. Drizzle in some oil – you need just enough to bind the sauce and get it to an oozy consistency.
5. Add most of the remaining cheese, then season to perfection with salt and black pepper. Have a taste, and keep adding a bit more cheese or oil until you are happy with the taste and consistency.

EDITS: So after completing the first attempt, realized that above ingredients definitely needed adjustments. Lesser oil, more basil, more pine nuts (I actually added walnuts apart from pine-nuts too - that really gave amazing flavor)  etc. You also do not need to use cream at all. And definitely Italian stomachs might be smaller but given Indian appetite, it's no way going to be able to serve so many people. Done all edits in table above

And the final look is as follows. Proud me!