PESTO SIMPLE

Fruit and Vegetables from the Midi, Renoir.

My pear tomatoes.

Pesto, pesto, pesto.

First you get fruity, unfiltered cold pressed extra virgin olive oil--Lebanese is my current choice--and add to it a sufficiency of fresh mashed garlic, Parmeggiano cheese, pine nuts and black pepper. If you are purist, you grind the lot in a mortar, but if you are not, it is acceptable to whirl it in a food processor, making sure that you do not liquify it entirely. Correct seasoning. There. That is it, summer in a bottle. Eat the entire thing on bread fresh from the oven or it to a huge platter bowl of past. Share it with your beloved, your relatives, neighbours, the postman. The operative word is feast. If you have made lots of pesto, pour it into ice cube trays and feeze it. Transfer the frozen cubes to plastic bags and return to freezer. Use the frozen cubes to add flavor to vegetable soup, paltas rellenas, orange and beet salad. This winter, when it snows, add it to bean soup. It will make you feel as if you were basking in the sun of an ancient piazza in Italy.

It is not too late to plant basil. For that matter, if you live in zone 6 , you can transplant tomato seedlings for a second crop. I just did. Please congratulate me