Dark basil pesto recipe: does it make a difference?

A friend recently gave me some dark basil that she had grown in a pot indoors. I was interested to see if it was different to the normal basil I used.

I read that this strain was created in America in the 1950s mainly just for the variation in looks, but I found it did have a slightly different taste. To my mind it has a slight anise resonance which was nice, but I do prefer my pesto to look brighter. Maybe that's just because I am so used to it?

Earlier in the week I had made an aubergine and mozzarella pasta, and it was outstanding in that. I will post the recipe for this next week, but today I made this simple pesto to complement some ham hock that I had made for dinner.

Ham hock - always so succulent and super cheap!

Ham hock - always so succulent and super cheap!

I previously posted how to make this ham hock that you can read here. But what is not shown in the photo is that this time I took some of the cooking juices and vegetables and blended them to make a light gravy to accompany this dish.

FoodTribe

Summer lunch recipe: how to cook a ham hock

Ham hocks are really economical and simple to make – fantastic for a summer lunch

Anyway I digress, here is the pesto recipe.

Basil Pesto

Simple pesto to serve as an antipasti, dip or stir in pasta

Ingredients

• 2 garlic cloves
• 5 tablespoons of olive oil
• pinch of salt
• 40 basil leaves
• 50g parmesan

Instructions

1. Put the garlic, olive oil, basil sand salt in a small blender and blitz till smooth. If you don't have one you can do it by hand in a pestle and mortar and in fact it tastes better that way.
2. Chop the parmesan into a few pieces and add to the blender, blitz until fairly smooth.

Recipe by

Carole Mason