Sort-of-Sicilian Pesto

what's with the Sicilian of the Sort-of Sicilian Pesto?  Well it's actually more of a Trapenese pesto.  and really, all this means is that instead of a shit ton of basil and cheese, you use more tomato.  and almonds.  sicilians like the almonds.  but, as in all recipes, one tweaks and tweaks, until the original is but a whisper of a dream.  in this case, of old, dead, Sicilians. 

still tastes great, though.

i've got tons and tons of tomatoes in the garden.  most of them are still in the unripened stage (it's SEPTEMBER, WTF??!!?)

but i most certainly have a butt ton of those teeny tiny red and gold cherry sized ones. 

and the yellow ones?  taste like CANDY.

so, while i wait for the not-so EARLY girls and the less-than BETTER boys, and everything in between to ripen (yes, i'm talkin' to YOU, tomatillos!!), i'm going to share what i've been up w/ with those smallish ones by making a cheese-less pesto.  good on just about anything.

just start with your garden!

oops, so there WERE a few big tomatoes in there.  but i'll just put them aside for something special.  what i want are THESE:

and the less than perfect basil.  unfortunately, the basil is looking rather long in the tooth, but since it's just going in a pesto, it's perfectly fine for what it's purpose is.

it's always a good idea to run it through one of these things, though.  this salad spinner must be at least 15 yrs old.  but it still does the job.  so i keep it around...

i guess you can put the veggies aside for a moment, so we can get started on toasting the almonds.  you'll need about a cup of sliced or slivered almonds (the shape doesn't really matter - it all gets zotzed up eventually).  we going to toast them.  slowly.  over a medium heat (if you were more accomplished, you'd do it over a medium high or high heat, but we're just playing w/ fire here, right?)

from raw to medium

from medium to - WHOA, that was fast!

(see, i told you to keep it on medium heat - when they turn, they turn quickly).  

you'll know when they are JUST about done when you start SMELLING the toastiness of the nuts (the nuttiess of the nuts???)

ok, now take them OFF the heat, OUT of the pan, and onto a large dinner plate so they can cool off without cooking more.  you'd be surprised what a little bit of residual heat can do to nuts.

time to grab your WHOLE HEAD of garlic!

and peel it all. 

add about a 1/2 cup of olive oil to the bottom of your saute pan.  when the olive oil is heated, add the garlic 

and cook till it looks like this:  (you can use medium high heat here.)

now add the tomatoes (at least one pint) to the garlic.

you may want to use a splatter guard.  sometimes these buggers pop like all git-out.

some say this is finished, because the tomatoes have popped.  i agree.

but this time i let it go a bit longer, because the tomato flavor deepens the longer it steeps and cooks.  and this time, that is what i was looking for. so i took it off the heat when it looked like this:

When the tomatoes look mushy and smell good, drain off most of the oil to save for later. you may have to use it to thin out your pesto later.

put the tomato garlic mixture in the food processor.

and add the basil and cooled almonds.  

zotz it all up with a good handful of salt and ground pepper.  if it's too thick, add a few tablespoons of the tomato oil mixture you were saving.  and zotz it up again.

again, since i don't always like playing by the rules, i also picked some oregano and thyme from the garden and tossed that into the mix - as well good few shakes of crushed red pepper flakes.  as you can see, i also used an ENTIRE head of garlic (the garlic cooks up quite mellow, so it's not very strong at the end.

so, what do i DO with this, you say?  

serve it over roasted vegetables, grilled meats, fake veggie pasta! 

spread it on your paleo buns as part of your lunch sandwich!

dip your flax seed crackers into it! 

it's versatile!  

and it's delish!!

Mangiare, Mangiare!!

Sicilian Pesto (sort of)

1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 cup basil leaves (packed)
1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds
4-5 cloves garlic
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Toast the almonds in a dry skillet until fragrant and browned.  Remove from heat and cool completely.  Add olive oil to pan and add garlic cloves.  Cook till garlic bubbles and blisters.  Add tomatoes and cook till tomatoes have popped from their skins.

Remove from heat.  Drain most olive oil from tomato garlic mixture.  Add tomatoes, basil, almonds to food processor and pulse blend till smooth, adding additional reserved tomato oil if needed to balance out thickness.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Store in fridge for one week.