{"id":869,"date":"2014-07-09T10:53:32","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T15:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pcandres.com\/?p=556"},"modified":"2015-11-06T15:14:08","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T21:14:08","slug":"pesto-making-soup-from-concentrate-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=869","title":{"rendered":"Soup From Concentrate: Pesto"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fthesoupblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D869&amp;layout=button_count&amp;show_faces=true&amp;action=like&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;width=450&amp;height=30\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width: 450px; height: 30px;\"><\/iframe><\/div><p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_557\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/BASIL-SWEET.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-557\" class=\"wp-image-557 size-full\" title=\"BASIL SWEET\" src=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/BASIL-SWEET.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/BASIL-SWEET.jpg 350w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/BASIL-SWEET-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/BASIL-SWEET-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-557\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Unprocessed Pesto<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This week\u2019s soup is pesto.\u00a0 Not one of those new, <em>nouvelle<\/em>?, pestos like cilantro, dill or mint (oops), but the classic made from fresh basil. This sauce, a paste really, was one of the first things I ever cooked on my own.<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: I\u2019m not counting that batch of Charlie Brown\u2019s brownies I made in my pre-teens, complete with artificial nuts made from all the improperly mixed dry ingredients.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Making pesto was the first time I truly used a food processor.\u00a0 I\u2019d inherited an old robocoup from my grandmother and I can safely say I could never have made this concentrated burst of flavors without it.\u00a0 Knife and spoon?\u00a0 Mortar and pestle?\u00a0 No way.\u00a0 It\u2019s just too dense.\u00a0 All that basil compressed into such a small space.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if I\u2019d made a glace (a highly concentrated stock) without having to cook anything.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m surprised I haven\u2019t made a pesto soup before because I\u2019ve done everything else with it\u2014hors d\u2019oeuvres, shrimp, lasagna, stuffed beef cutlets, salad dressing. It was always a good strong taste. For years pesto was my go-to food.\u00a0 I even grew my own.<\/p>\n<p>I learned the secrets of tending basil plants one summer in Valley Village before I\u2019d even considered cooking school.\u00a0 The result:\u00a0 4 full harvests of leaves from my plants that season.\u00a0 The trick, in case you don\u2019t know, is to pull off the buds before they bloom.\u00a0 Don\u2019t laugh, it was quite a discovery for me.\u00a0 It kept the stems soft and pliable almost the whole summer.\u00a0 No blooms meant no going to seed, no woody stems and no anemic leaves. \u00a0Just a lot of pesto and tons of Caprese salad.<\/p>\n<p>If you haven\u2019t made fresh pesto before, you might want to bypass the soup the first time through, and enjoy this pesto recipe on a nice pasta.\u00a0 It\u2019s really good.<\/p>\n<p>I must confess to a fair amount of trepidation as I was pouring all that stock into this delicious green paste.\u00a0 I thought I would dilute the flavor for sure.\u00a0 But the problem was more one of consistency. Midway through the cooking, the soup was really thin.\u00a0 It was still very flavorful. Pesto is, after all, highly concentrated. The soup just didn\u2019t have any body.<\/p>\n<p>My first attempt at thickening the soup involved adding a pint of home-made croutons.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this made the soup too thick.\u00a0 It also turned the dish into something of a bread stew. At dinner that night, my wife said it was delicious but that I couldn\u2019t really call it a soup.\u00a0 As true as that was, I was not ready to regroup and start again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is too a soup, dammit.\u00a0 You\u2019re wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, I wish I\u2019d said something that clever.\u00a0 In fact, I said something far more witless and profane.\u00a0 In front of the kids too.\u00a0 Nuts.<\/p>\n<p>It was still food, even good food.\u00a0 It just wasn\u2019t soup.<\/p>\n<p>The next day I started again.\u00a0 This time I thickened the soup with a cup of pasta.\u00a0 Much better.\u00a0 That\u2019s the pesto I know and love, in soup form to boot.<\/p>\n<p>It amazes me that something that I\u2019ve literally beaten to a pulp could be so rich and so resilient.\u00a0 Good pesto shines through no matter when you serve it or what you serve it with.<\/p>\n<p>I guess that\u2019s a lesson I should take to heart.\u00a0 Not literally, mind you.\u00a0 I\u2019m not too keen on getting pulverized by a rotating blade.\u00a0 The pesto metaphor\u2019s good though.<\/p>\n<p>Start fresh.\u00a0 Stay strong.\u00a0 Don\u2019t skimp on the garlic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pesto Soup<br \/>\n<\/strong>(serves 4-6)<br \/>\n<em>Pesto:<br \/>\n<\/em>3\u00bd-4 cups basil leaves, firmly packed<br \/>\n4 cloves garlic<br \/>\n\u00bc cup pine nuts<br \/>\n\u00bd cup parmesan cheese<br \/>\n\u00bc-\u00bd cup olive oil<br \/>\nSalt &amp; pepper to taste<br \/>\n4 cups stock<br \/>\n\u00bd-1 cup pasta (More pasta=thicker soup. I used penne, but orso would be good too.)<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Put basil, garlic, nuts and cheese into the bowl of a food processor.\u00a0 With the blade turning, drizzle in the olive oil until the ingredients come together in a bright green paste.\u00a0 Adjust the seasoning to your liking and remove from the food processor.<\/li>\n<li>Combine pesto with the stock, bring to a boil and add pasta.\u00a0 Continue simmering until pasta is cooked through.<\/li>\n<li>Garnish with parmesan shaved over the surface of the soup.<\/li>\n<li>Serve at room temperature with a nice salad dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette.\u00a0 Including fresh heirloom tomatoes in the salad would also be a good idea.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Image Credit: Basil, lots and lots of basil.\u00a0 Photograph found on the Internet from the site of Oregon massage\/aroma therapist KG Stiles (www.kgstiles.com)<\/em><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Did you eat paste as a child?\u00a0 Does pesto bring back those good memories or make you vaguely uncomfortable.\u00a0 Let me know.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be reading <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">and<\/span> responding.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; This week\u2019s soup is pesto.\u00a0 Not one of those new, nouvelle?, pestos like cilantro, dill or mint (oops), but the classic made from fresh basil. This sauce, a paste really, was one of the first things I ever cooked on my own. Note: I\u2019m not counting that batch of Charlie Brown\u2019s brownies I made [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,61,64,22,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cheese","category-garlic","category-herbs","category-noodles","category-vegetarian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=869"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2256,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869\/revisions\/2256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}