Festa del Pesto: Robot-Coupe Repast

Monday 5 October

Last Thursday Lauren and Zac were supposed to come over to help us harvest the basil and make fresh pesto and fresh pasta for dinner.  But as we've mentioned, Zac got sick and they had to reschedule; luckily, he felt better today. 

In the meantime, Barbara had gone out in Friday's chill rain to pick the basil before the cold could crisp it, while Holt pesto-ized it in the robot-coupe, using walnuts, both pecorino romano and asiago, and our own garden garlic, and filling several jars with the green gold.

That would set the theme for our dinner with Zac and Lauren: almost every course featured something we'd whizzed up in the robot-coupe.

Ironically, today the weather was beautiful - high 70s, blue skies, and sunny.  So we sat out on the patio, enjoying the garden, to drink Kir royales and eat our appetizers: roasted red peppers with capers and white anchovies, black and green lemony olives, and taramasalata (via robot-coupe) with pita bread.

Of course, the centerpiece of the meal was freshly-made fettucine (robot-coupe) dressed with the fragrant pesto (ditto).

The next course cleared the palate with some Napa cabbage slaw with gorgonzola - okay, hand-sliced, not robot-couped.

And for dessert, Holt made Carol Fields' coffee walnut torta rustica (of course, whizzing the nuts up in the robot-coupe), topped with just a sprinkle of powdered sugar.
A sip of sweet Ipsus Pantelleria passito wine went beautifully with the cake, and made a sweet finish for our evening with friends.