Praise Pesto!

Looking for a New York City apartment is no walk in the park. It is a process, a full-time job, and a major financial undertaking. Fortunately for me, I never had to go through the process. Shortly after I learned I was moving to New York City, a good friend of mine offered me her apartment as she was moving to New Jersey. I took the apartment sight unseen.

Despite my personal inexperience, I have witnessed family and many friends go through the process of searching for an apartment in New York City. The endless hours on Craigslist, or the multiple appointments with realtors, only to find that an apartment advertised as a spacious, sunny, oversized one bedroom in a safe building with outdoor space is really only a small alcove studio with no windows in a late 19th century walk-up tenement building with a rickety fire escape. The latter I believe to be an accurate description of my apartment. I digress, but I am going somewhere with this.

As outdoor space in New York City has become as hot as carrying a small teacup Chihuahua in a Louis Vuitton pet carrier, I have successfully turned my rusty, dilapdated fire escape into a teaming and bountiful gardenscape. Earlier this summer, my boyfriend and I planted several different types of herbs in an oversized planter on my fire escape. After several weeks of faithful herbscaping, the basil and parsley are as high as an elephant's eye. To avoid competing with the large oak tree outside my only functional window (that was probably planted by Mr. Van Rensaleer himself), I decided it was time for a harvest. Since we had so much basil and parsley, a pesto recipe was in order!

Last night I made the most deliciously garlicky, emphasis added, pesto. I found a recipe for a tri-herb pesto, which called for basil, parsley and mint. Having a palate that is partial to a basil pesto, I decided to go out on a mint stem and challenge my palate's partiality. Using my new "mini" food processor, which by the way has forever changed my life, I chopped and grinded until I perfected my pesto. The recipe I used called for equal portions of the three herbs, pine nuts, olive oil, parmesan cheese and 2 cloves of garlic. Although the parsley and mint added a nice crispness and freshness to the pesto, the 2 cloves of garlic were a bit much. It would have been the perfect portion for pesto for eight, but a bit overwhelming for the small portion I made. The pesto was served over grilled chicken breasts and complimented by paprika seasoned fingerling potatoes. It ended up being a lovely meal and I would do it again using just 1 garlic clove.

Even though I still have a bad case of garlic breath, the experience was well worth it. For me, it is less about the garlic aftermath, and all about the use of fresh herbs from my so-called "outdoor space."

Until next time....