Beating basil by hand

Executive Summary:
1st time: hand made pesto in a mortar and pestle. Beating time: 50 min. Effort: considerable. Worth it compared to Cuisinart? Nope.

Full Verson:
For years I've read a few cookbooks whose authors say that handmade Pesto has a superior texture and better flavour than pesto produced by machine. This year, having 3 remarkably productive pots of basil in the back yard and a little time on my hands, I decided it was time to find out.

After picking, washing and air drying 3 cups of basil leaves, I set to reducing them to a paste. What a task. I have a solid porcelain mortar and pestle and pounded and ground away for about 40 minutes. The 3 cups was reduced to about 1/3 cup! Then came the pan roasted pine nuts and 5 cloves of fresh garlic. Pounding continued. Add a little salt, a few peppercorns and a small handful of grated Romano. About 50 minutes later all this was reduced to something I'd call a paste. Olive oil stirred in, it was done.

I would say that the aroma produced through this lengthy process was wonderful, but the colour showed that the basil had oxidized more than when bashed by machine. But all that aside, when mixed with pasta and served up with tomatos, it was very good. Just not better than what I get by the usual method. Even the texture was not much different. So, bottom line is that it was a noble experiment, but I'll go back to mechanization.