Pesto - Australian-Italian style

One of the many challenges we are faced in Italy is how to eat all the vegetables that grow in our veggie patch without wasting them. 

We always have a glut of basil whatever we do to try to phase it.  

We found this recipe in an Australian pizza recipe book “Pizza modo mio” by John Lanzafame. Although it is a bit fiddly to make (you have 2-4 hours prep in making the onion confit and garlic confit before starting on the pesto) the pesto it is delicious and keeps for a month in the fridge. The onion and garlic confit also keeps for 3 months in the fridge. I usually make double the quantity of the garlic and onion confit and 5x of the pesto in one session. This normally uses all of the confits up in one go and the volume lasts us about a month with 2 of us eating fresh pasta 3-4 times a week; when in Italy… ☺

Foodstuff you will need:  

Onion Confit  

2-3 brown onions (peeled and chopped)

150ml olive oil 

Garlic Confit  

30 peeled garlic cloves (approx 2-3 bulbs)

150ml olive oil

Handful of flat leaved parsley leaves

Pesto 

Juice of 1 lemon

2 large handfuls of basil

2 tablespoons of pine nuts

2-3 anchovy fillets

3 tablespoons of grated parmesan

80ml olive oil – plus a bit more to cover the pesto in the jar

1 tablespoon of onion confit

1 tablespoon of garlic confit

Equipment:

2 oven proof dishes (if making both confits at same time)

Sharp knives and chopping board

Tablespoons

Large blender or food processor.

Plastic spatula

Glass jars with screw top lids (sterilized)

How to throw it together

Onion Confit   (see large tray in foreground of photo above)

Preheat oven to 120C

Put chopped onion and olive oil into oven proof dish and bake for 2 hours until onion soft and translucent. Try not to brown the onions (this is hard as I have not yet managed to stop them turning brown!)

Remove from oven and allow to cool. 

Put onions and oil into jar and store in fridge until ready to use.

Garlic Confit   (see small tray at rear of photo above)

Preheat oven to 120C

Put garlic cloves, olive oil and parsley leaves into an oven proof dish and bake for 2 hours. Try not to brown the garlic. My garlic always looks toasty but that is ok; do not burn to a cinder!

Remove from oven and allow to cool. 

Put garlic, parsley and oil into jar and store in fridge until ready to use.

Pesto

Put all ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Add extra olive oil if you wish for runnier pesto or extra basil for thicker pesto. This photo shows it a little too thick. 

Season to taste.

Pour into a jar and cover with a thin layer of olive oil.

The pesto keeps for 1 month

After using, cover the surface of the pesto with another thin layer of olive oil ; this will stop the pesto oxidizing.