(More if you love it)

A couple of years ago my friend Suzanne gave me a copy of her recipe for pesto. I'd been complaining that I hadn't found one I liked yet. Although the weather had been awful for gardening that summer, I had actually managed to grow some basil, and I wanted to do something with it that would endure into the winter months.

Suzanne's pesto recipe is, indeed, very fine. But the thing that really caught my fancy about the recipe itself is that, when it lists how much garlic to use, Suzanne added a comment next to it, in parentheses: more if you love it. I do love garlic, and so I do add more, and it's fabulous.

But really, "more if you love it" is a good way to think about the world. I don't think of it in terms of it encouraging excess, but merely encouraging you to revel in the things that you love. I want to do that. It's not really different from how I already live, but I want to do it deliberately, and, as often as I can, revel in the things that I love. You never know how many days you have, after all. I can try for more, because I do love it, but at the end of the day I'll take what I can get.

As a good beginning to a blog, to a new year, and to what ever the future brings, I think that "more if you love it" has an auspicious ring to it, and I think it makes an auspicious beginning.

Although it's totally the opposite time of year from when a pesto recipe will do you much good (at least if you live in the northern hemisphere), here's Suzanne's recipe.

Classic Fresh Pesto
3 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 large cloves of garlic (more if you love it)
1/2 cup pine nuts or pecan meats
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese
1 teaspoon fresh oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (or to taste)
1/2 to 1 cup fruity olive oil (or more)
salt to taste

Instructions: Combine all the ingredients in a food processor or blender, adding enough olive oil to make a thick, smooth sauce. Add salt to taste.

Tip for people with pathetic blenders: If you're like me, and you have a cheap blender that only works so-so, rather than follow the instructions above, try this instead: start at the bottom of the recipe. Put 1/2 cup of the olive oil into the blender, and add everything except the basil. Blend all of the other stuff first, then start adding basil. Add more olive oil as needed to get the consistency you're looking for.