Pesto Panna Cotta, Saveur August/September 2012
(with candied pine nuts and tomato sorbet)
This is sort of an Italian pasta sauce deconstructed and reworked into a dessert. It's more of a basil panna cotta than a pesto one, because the pine nuts are candied on the side instead of blended in with the basil, and there isn't garlic, olive oil, parmesan cheese, or any of the other things you normally put in a pesto. In fact, it tastes basically identical to the basil ice cream from the mango-basil vacherin I made in April.
Which made me realize-- I really wish this panna cotta was next to some mango sorbet instead of tomato sorbet. Although the sorbet starts with fresh summer tomatoes, they get simmered (with a bit of sugar), so the sorbet really just tastes like a sweetened, cold can of stewed tomatoes. Not that great. Then again, I don't like V8 juice either.
The pine nuts were fine, but nothing that I would get a craving for.
My blender didn't do a good job at liquefying the basil. Perhaps an immersion blender would have worked better. In both this and the vacherin's basil ice cream, I felt like the basil didn't taste as fresh after being blanched. I wonder what would happen if it was only partially blanched and then the rest was put in the blender fresh.
I'm glad I made this, but I won't save the recipe. It's an interesting concept but isn't that pleasing of a flavor combination. Actually, this is why I don't like to go to expensive, high-class restaurants. They do serve things like this. Once we went to a place during Restaurant Week that had a cigar-and-whiskey flavored ice cream pairing. The last time we went to Craigie on Main we were served popcorn ice cream. These things all seem best suited for a House Cup competition at our dorm, where dishes are judged equally for creativity as they are for palatableness... which allows for some bizarre submissions. I just want food to taste good.
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