Inspired by a side dish in a recent Knoxville News Sentinel article about one of my newest favorite food bloggers, I decided to take an inaugural stab at harvesting some of our basil last Thursday night.
We have two basil plants going at the moment: one, a paler green, in a container, and the other, deeper green and far more fragrant, in the garden next to the tomatoes. Neither plant is doing as well as I would like, so I figured I’d mix the two varieties for this dish.
I’d picked up a small container of new potatoes at the farmer’s market on Tuesday night, and, inspired by the Baby potatoes Parmesan recipe in the article, set out to make some magic.
We were already planning to grill burgers and asparagus, so I quartered four garlic cloves, halved the baby potatoes, and wrapped all that in a foil packet, which Steve threw on the grill with the rest of the food.
While that cooked up, I washed the basil, patted it dry and sliced it into ribbons, then tossed that with some extra virgin olive oil, lots of kosher salt and cracked black pepper, and what turned out to be about 3 tablespoons of shredded romano cheese. The container of cheese was close to the end, and I couldn’t resist just finishing it off.
The potatoes came off the grill with the rest of the food, but Steve opened the packet, bit into one, and I heard a crunch. Nope, not ready. We returned the packet to the grill while we ate our burgers and asparagus, and after another 10 or 15 minutes, the garlic had turned slightly tan and soft, and the potatoes were cooked through. I threw that in with the basil-oil-cheese mixture, tossed it all around, and served. They were inhale-the-food good. Off the charts. Definitely a keeper of a recipe, if I do say so myself. The home-grown basil made all the difference.
Lazy pesto potatoes
1 pint baby new potatoes
4 garlic cloves
Approximately 10-15 good-sized basil leaves, sliced into ribbons
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp. shredded Romano, although Parmesan or Asiago would be delicious as well
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Peel and quarter the garlic cloves and halve the potatoes. Wrap the garlic and potatoes in foil and grill over medium high heat for 25 minutes or until done. Meanwhile, combine the ribbons of basil with the olive oil, salt and pepper and cheese in a bowl. When the potatoes are ready, add the potatoes and garlic to the bowl and toss to combine. Serve immediately. (Serves two.)
This post is part of Weekend Herb Blogging, which is being hosted this week by Virginie at Absolutely Green.
on Jun 23rd, 2006 at 8:13 am
Mmm, sounds good! I can never bring myself to dig up our new potatoes – too worried I’ll run out of potatoes next winter. I’ll have to pick some up at the farmers market Saturday and try this. Would go well with the beercan chicken I’m planning for the grill this weekend.
on Jun 23rd, 2006 at 8:57 am
They’d definitely go well with that. That reminds me–I need to figure out the beer can chicken cooking method. I’ve always wanted to try it and have never managed to get myself to actually do it. Maybe this summer…
on Jun 23rd, 2006 at 9:17 am
A very aromatic recipe. Thank you for posting it. It’s the first time I hear about Kosher salt. What is the difference with another salt ?
on Jun 23rd, 2006 at 9:26 am
Virginie, it’s just a larger, coarser-grained variety of salt. Also, it doesn’t have any additives. I like it because the bigger grains provide more flavor than iodized table salt. I bet they just call it something different in France, but I’m not sure what that would be…
Thanks for stopping by and for hosting WHB this week!
Genie
on Jun 23rd, 2006 at 11:50 am
That looks delicious. I’m going to go second the potato comment from Sugar Creeck Farm, I know my twenty five plants are going to produce enough for my uses, but I’m too paranoid to yank any up for new potatoes.
on Jun 24th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
Genie – These were a bit hit with DH and also with the beer butt chicken. They conmplimented each other. Thanks.
RV
on Jun 24th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
Genie – These were a big hit with DH and also with the beer butt chicken. They conmplimented each other. Thanks.
RV
on Jun 26th, 2006 at 9:53 am
Thank you Genie, yes, we’ve got one I was wondering how to call it in english. For us it’s just a “big sea salt”. I use it a lot too.
on Jun 26th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
How great that Kevin was honored in the newspaper. He’s so talented. Your potatoes sound wonderful, but unfortunately, not on my diet. And since I haven’t been sticking to it that well while I’ve been traveling, I need to stick with it but a little recuperation period, if you know what I mean. (Only a couple of pounds but I try to be careful.)
on Jun 26th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
RV–Rock on — I’m glad you and DH liked them!
Virginie–Glad I was able to help clarify that for you. Thanks again for including me in the round-up — you’ve worked really hard to build a fabulous (three-part) post!
Kalyn–I know exactly what you mean…I’ve got a barrier above which I have vowed to never pass again. All the travel lately has certainly not helped. Ahem. It’s back to clean living for me this week!
on Dec 18th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
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