Pesto Abruzzese

• • • Makes about 1 pint • • •

Don’t let the word pesto confuse you. This raw vegetable paste is not for tossing with cooked pasta. It’s a flavor base, an ingenious little shortcut that I learned from my friend Giulia Scappaticcio and her mother-in-law, Francesca. Together with the rest of their family they operate Casale Centurione, a guest house in the Abruzzo countryside. Francesca keeps a large container of this pesto in the refrigerator and adds generous dollops of it to skillets and saucepans as a starter for soups, sauces, and stews. When I’m short on time, I use it in place of the Italian “holy trinity” of flavor bases—minced carrot, celery, and onion. When I’m cooking more leisurely, I use both to create an extra layer of flavor.

4 medium carrots, cut into pieces or coarsely chopped

2 celery stalks, plus a handful of leaves if you have them, coarsely chopped

1 small yellow onion, cut into large dice

3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

Handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

2 teaspoons fine sea salt

½ cup (110 g) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed

1 • Combine the carrots, celery, onion, garlic, parsley, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse to break up the vegetables. With the motor running, drizzle in as much of the olive oil as needed to make a thick, coarse paste.

2 • Spoon the paste into a clean (or sterilized) wide-mouth jar and press it down with the back of a spoon. Top off with more oil (the paste doesn’t have to be completely submerged).

3 • Store the pesto in the refrigerator and spoon out as needed. Use only in recipes that call for cooking the pesto; it doesn’t taste good raw, but it makes a great starting point for almost any Italian soup, stew, or sauce. Just sauté the pesto in a little olive oil over low heat until fragrant and slightly softened; then proceed with the recipe (see Classic Meat Sauce, page 122, or Zuppa di Pasta e Fagioli, page 129). Use the pesto within 2 weeks.