Saturday Night Dinner – Risotto Bianco and Pesto

The weekend fresh food continued on Saturday with two ingredients chanterellemushrooms and basil. Finally, chanterelles are are showing up. at $44 a pound I only bought a few. Our garden is also cranking out basil now. So that I could use both of these ingredients, I made a pan of risotto bianco that will serve as a base for two different toppings. The first topping was a chanterelles, corn and brown butter compote and Basil Pesto. While the chanterelless topping was ok, the Pesto topping said summertime all the way.

I’m sure there are a million basil pesto recipes out there so I wont bother to post that but what I do want to point our is what I think is the key to great pesto. Freshness! I did two thing one I picked the basil just before dinner and made sure the leaves were not to large or the plants were not flowering. Once the leaves get too big they get bitter. The other thing I did was , wait just until serving before blending the pesto. the difference is night and day. This keeps the basil from oxidizing and maintains great sweetness. Risotto Bianco and Ultra-Fresh Pesto…..Try it