Hi, my name is Jennifer Chandler and I'm with Cheflive and today I'm going to be making a Chicken Tortellini with a Pesto Sauce. I'm going to be using a mortal and pestle. Basically, these are used for spices, thicker enough spices. You can make pestos with them, of course.
Back in the day, they used to grind up like to make corn tea and things like that. So we’re going to do a pesto today. And I’ve got basil right here and I'm going to chop it up first and then add it to here. To make it a little bit easier, basil is amazing. It’s part of the spearmint and peppermint families, so it’s really good for like helping to digest your food and things like that. Just put a nice little chop on it real quick.
Now, you can also blanch this ahead of time, just soak in some hot water and then put it in a nice ice bath but I'm just going to do it with the fresh. Now, there are two types, you know you can get the small one. This is obviously made of a marble. It’s a little smoother inside. This one is made of stone and it’s kind of brass, and they also have some that are made up of wood. They’re fun of you know getting play with and everything easy.
And I get some garlic here and I'm just going to go ahead and toast in here with my basil. I'm going ahead and first I'm going to smash up my garlic a little bit. Make it a little bit easier. Just top it in there. You can use as much garlic as you want. I like to have garlic. It’s nice to blend with the pasta.
Also you can use some arugula. I was going to do the arugula today. It’s really nice leaf. It’s a little spicy and peppery. Sometimes it’s a little cheaper than basil and it’s usually is a little more available during the winter times. I have some walnuts here, usually whenever you do a pesto is you used pie nuts? The walnuts are nice alternative. They are little cheaper than pie nuts and they still give off a nice little flavor to peel a little walnut oil in there. So I got the nuts and I'm just going to kind of break those up. Put them in there. I'm going to put in some Parmesan cheese. Then I'm just kind of start breaking this up. This is a nice little chore. You can also do this with the food processor.
I'm just basically, I'm bursting the basil, mashing it up. I'm going to add a little bit of oil. I want to make sure I get that garlic bit up. And then I’ll just continue and see how this is get a real soft and there’s a way out if you want to skip the jam, just make some pesto for the night . Switch hand though because you don’t want to wear one side out.
Good flavor a little bit more seasoning and add some salt. The salt will also help break it down, a little bit of pepper. The garlic is really strong in this, so make sure you guys have known each other for a while. The way I do it is if you need something that’s kind of strong in garlic make sure that your partner eat it, too. That way you don’t notice.
Alright, look at that I'm going to go ahead and strain my pasta. I'm going to check one first. You can tell they look good, but I'm going to make sure they’re nice and warm in the middle. This is the reason why the cook never eat, sit down and eat, “keep it like no we’re fine.” I’ll grab my bowl here.
And, there’s my warm pasta now I'm just going to take my pesto. Grab some nut, just toast it in there and you just want to coat the pasta, a little bit more. Add some Parmesan cheese in there and then add a little bit more, alright there we go.
Then I’ll just plate it up. I worked in a little Italian restaurant, and when I was plating the pasta it would fall all over the place, and my chef would always tell me. “Just leave it per lays.” You know what I mean because then you don’t have a messy plate. Sprinkle a little bit of Parmesan cheese, a kind of little basil for garnish. There we go, your tortellini with basil pesto.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services