Basil is near the top in the pantheon of culinary herbs, and pesto is one of the most classic preparations for basil that I know of, and one that I love. In theory, you can make pesto with most any herb, and I’ve tried variations over the years, but always come back to basil pesto, especially with pasta. Since we’re talking about classics, I like the basic recipe in Joy of Cooking, although use a food processor rather than mortar and pestle. Adding your thin stream of olive oil while the processor is running, really incorporates it into the pesto, and lets you easily assess your desired texture.

Then there is the school of thought that says a classic dish is just a framework to build your own dish around. My only variation tonight, is to combine sweet basil, Thai basil and cinnamon basil, since I didn’t really have enough of the sweet alone for the size batch I had in mind. The three basil pesto was a hit at dinner, although truthfully, any difference from my usual pesto may have been more imagined than tasted.