Marlena is discovered!

okay, didn't find my classic recipe--who uses it anyhow: here's how it goes: garlic, basil (a lot), pine nuts or walnuts, salt, and enough evoo to make it all shiny and smooth. parmigiana or pecorino as you like.

I couldn't find my link to article about pesto, but found my own draft; here it is:

Mortar and pestle in my bag, I trotted up to BBC Broadcasting House. In the bag too masses of sweet fragrant basil, handfuls of pinenuts and Parmigiana. I was making traditional Ligurian pesto, with Sheila Dillon of BBC Radio 4 The Food Programme. I had already taped interviews and my visit throughout the villages, farms and marketplaces around Genoa. I would make the pesto in studio, using the traditional utensil of mortar and pestle. (which every ligurian family displays proudly, though will admit that they are whirling their pesto in their blenders and food processors).

I pounded garlic, nuts, worked in the fragrant green leaves, then the Ligurian olive oil in a steady stream (pesto NEEDS Ligurian olive oil; other olive oils will be delicious, but only Ligurian oil will will taste like Genoa, Liguria.......in other words, like pesto.).

Sheila and I chatted while I pounded and stirred, then we sat down and on-air, forked up the green green sauce with a bowl of pasta. We segued into a tape of me visiting Liguria, the basil fields, the pesto kitchens, the summertime market of Santa Margharita and Portofino. listening to Ligurians argue every so entertainingly about the best way to make pesto: "With garlic! Without garlic! with Parmesan! with Pecorino! with pinenuts, with walnuts" there was no end to it. The control room smelled like Genoa on a Sunday afternoon.

The following Sunday, there I was, coffee mug in hand, under the duvet. As usual when I'm on the radio I wait to be discovered.

You know how it is--I think to myself: maybe this will be the time I get that call... the big time.... someone out there listening will recognize my talent and discover me!

My inner "star" cries out: "Yes, someone, give me my own show or at least my own spot on the big time!". This time I felt no different.

However...........the next day I DID get contacted, I DID get discovered. Sort of.

"What a voice!" the email exclaimed. "You're just what we've been looking for!" I basked in the praise, waiting for what would come next. My big break: would it be Radio? Television?

The email continued..........not a radio show, exactly, nor television........ What I was dicovered for was........ahem, how can i say this: a website. A live call-in porn website. just let her know if and when i should decide to join "the girls".

oh, I toyed with the stage name of Sweet Bah-sil Galore. The website lady said I could earn a fortune; who knows, she continued, maybe there are guys out there with food fetishes, even basil and pesto fetishes. But though I am quite pleased to be discovered and fussed over and praised, and the truth is, well, okay, while its not television or radio, a Fan is a Fan.............

And while I do love to think of myself as being discovered..........( "What a voice!" I comfort myself with privately). But as tempting as it may be, I think I'll stay in the kitchen....
..........though some have pointed out that there's a phone in the kitchen, too.

here is not the classic basil recipe but one using cilantro, served with a spicy tomato-chile pasta. its so soothingly invigoratingly happy-making that when i eat it, i can console myself over my near miss with fame. after all, as long as i--and everyone i love--has that recipe, i'm happy.

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Pasta Arrabiatta with Californian Cilantro Pesto (adapted from Hot and Spicy, Tarcher books, out of print)
Serves 4
I'm offering a recipe for cilantro pesto here, a New World fusion that no self respecting Ligurian would recognize, but it is utterly delicious and I"ve run classic pestos many times in various articles, etc.
Though I'm serving it with a spicy tomato sauce (arrabiatta means enraged, enraged from chilli peppers) you could serve it spooned into a spicy sopa de tortilla, or layered with sliced cheese into a grilled cheese sandwich.
1 lb penne
5-7 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon red chilli flakes, or to taste
1 cup tomato passata
Salt to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan, pecorino, asiago,dry Jack, etc, cheese, as desired

Bring a large pot of water to the boil then add about a tablespoon of salt.
In a heavy frying pan heat the garlic in the olive oil and add the hot pepper flakes; stir and cook a moment or two, taking care not to inhale the chilli fumes as they can make you cough frighteningly. Add the tomato passata and cook together over a medium heat for 5-8 minutes . You want the sauce to reduce by about half.
Meanwhile, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until it is al dente. Drain well, reserving about 1/4 cup of the cooking water for the final saucing.
Toss the drained pasta with the sauce, add ing a few tablespoons of the cooking water as you toss it together in the pan over a medium heat for a few moments.
Serve right away, with a dab of cilantro pesto and a scattering of freshly grated cheese.

Cilantro Pesto:
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, about 1 1/2 cups
3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2-3 ounces freshly grated Parmesan or other delicious grating cheese (dry Jack, asiago, etc)
Optional: a pinch of chilli powder, a tiny squirt of lime juice
Puree the garlic in a food processor and add the cilantro. When it is completely chopped add the olive oil then the cheese. Taste for seasoning (ie salt, chilli powder, lime juice). Keep covered with plastic wrap in refrigerator.