Sugar Snap Peas and Asparagus with Hand-Pounded Pesto

When you spend twelve years in L.A., it’s easy to forget what real spring feels like. I say “real spring” because the spring that you get in L.A. is ersatz spring… nothing really died in the winter, so nothing really comes back. It never got that cold, it never snowed, you never stepped into an icy puddle.

In New York, when spring comes it’s a healing event. I remember looking out my bedroom window back in March and seeing deadness everywhere; now I look out and everything alive and bursting with leaves. I’m so giddy with growing things, I have enumerable herbs in pots on my porch; I just added basil to the mix.

The basil was ripe for the plucking so tonight I plucked it and smashed it into a pesto in my mortar and pestle. I’ve always wanted to make pesto this way, like a real Italian grandma or Samin Nosrat. I started by toasting some pine nuts and adding it to the mortar with a fat clove of garlic.

I pounded that into a paste (great way to get out your aggression!) and then added a bunch of basil that I washed and patted very dry… about two cups.

Smashing your basil into a paste by hand isn’t just fun and a mini workout, it’s also incredibly fragrant and doesn’t bruise your basil the way a blade would. Once it’s all mashed down and pasty, you stir in olive oil (about 1/3rd of a cup; use the best you have)….

Then you add Parmesan, about 1/4 cup to start. You just stir it all around and taste and adjust for cheese and salt. It’ll be pretty potent, but that’s what you want.

At this point, you can make pasta and stir your pesto into that. I decided to use up some veggies I scored at the farmer’s market instead: namely, asparagus and sugar snap peas. I pulled the strings off the peas and cut the asparagus into large sugarsnap-size pieces and blanched them in lots of salted water.

When it was just cooked but still toothsome, I lifted everything with a strainer tool into a bowl of ice water to shock it.

This not only stops the cooking, it also helps preserve the color.

From here, all you have to do is drain all that in a colander, put it back in the big bowl, and toss it with the pesto. You may want to add some more olive oil and a big pinch of salt and maybe some more cheese, shredded basil, and toasted pine nuts if you feel up to it. I just added the pesto.

People, these vegetables tasted SO good; all the freshest, springiest stuff. I served it with salmon that I seared in a skillet.

Really, you don’t need a recipe. Do it all by taste and use proportions that make sense to you.

Now what am I going to do with all of the rosemary, thyme, sage, marjoram, and mint on my porch? The mind reels with the possibilites.