Jessica (the mastermind behind that beautiful disgrace of a blueberry pie that I wrote about the other day) and her husband have dual lifestyles, living part-time in a cute double in the Garden District, other times shacked away in their cozy country cottage. Double lives equal double friends, at least for them, so I was really excited when they told me about Pesto Fest, an annual get-together put on by some friends who live mostly in the Marigny here in NOLA but who own a spectacular piece of land in Derby, MS.
Basically: we assemble at the house, where we meet many others and the remarkable aroma of basil and garlic. Each person is armed with a cutting board, an ingredient, and a knife to match. We were quickly handed cloves of garlic and told to chop away. (Food processors: not allowed.) After some time for roaming the property, swimming, or sipping hibiscus tea indoors, we take the multitude of bowls across the road to another friend’s house, where pasta has just finished cooking and oodles of other plates (vegan Asian noodle salad, a couple varieties of potato salad, watermelons with balsamic, a big beautiful green salad with chevre, thickly sliced fresh bread… the works), where we fill our plates ’til they overflow and sit on the grass, delighting in banter, Prosecco, and very heady garlicky pesto of four different varieties.
And, okay, so pesto isn’t the most American of dishes to be eating on our country’s Independence Day. But Southerners, you tell me if there’s much you’d rather eat than a bowl of cool, spicy green pesto over noodles.
Lovely pesto in the making.
There was also plain pecan pesto, pine nut pesto, and smashed walnut pesto. MMMMMM.
Foccacia meets pizza. Bubbly cheese (something with ricotta underneath a layer of mozzarella) with pine nuts and sliced tomatoes. Simple. Good nibbles when you’re in the boiling heat of Mississippi in July.
I can add this to my exhaustive repertoire of favorite ways to eat a tomato. Succulent tomatoes, plucked fresh from the garden, are arranged garland-style around a pool of fresh tabbouleh. Feel the love.
