Create perfect pesto for pasta

Last week, I told you about one of my favorite ways to make a pasta sauce without cooking, taking advantage of summertime's abundant crop of sun-ripened tomatoes. Today, I want to share another great no-cook pasta sauce that capitalizes on the seasonal bounty of one of the most fragrant, delicious herbs: fresh basil.

People who plant basil know that it can overrun a sunny garden, leaving cooks to wonder what they're going to do with it all. Even food lovers without a garden will find at this time of year great big bouquets of the deep-green herb in farmers' markets and supermarkets.

Fortunately, there's a simple solution to an overabundance of fresh basil: Turn it into pesto.

The classic sauce from northern Italy takes its name from the same Latin root that gives us the English word "paste," as well as "pestle," that pounding implement that has been used with a mortar for centuries, if not millennia, to puree foods. Today, of course, food processors make the work much easier, though some cooks still swear by the somewhat coarser results they get from using a mortar and pestle.

Whatever you use to make it, classic pesto combines fresh basil leaves with garlic, pine nuts, olive oil and Parmesan cheese to make a vibrant green, incredibly aromatic sauce. When you toss it with freshly cooked hot pasta, of which the slightly flattened strand known as linguine is the traditional partner, the pesto bursts forth with aromatic flavor. One bite, and you'll feel like you're in a little trattoria in Tuscany.

One of my favorite things about pesto is that, easy as it is to make, it provides a platform for almost endless variations. I like to add other ingredients when I toss the pesto with the pasta. In the recipe that follows, for example, I include slivers of sun-dried tomato, which contribute bright contrasting color and hints of sweet flavor, and arugula leaves, which add yet another dimension with their pleasantly bitter taste.

Of course, you don't have to stop there. Diced fresh tomato, for example, could be substituted for the sun-dried kind. Top each serving of the just-tossed pasta and pesto with grilled chicken, fish or shrimp. For a vegetarian enhancement, scatter some crumbles of fresh creamy goat cheese over each serving. You don't even really need pasta. Just spoon some pesto over freshly sliced tomatoes, or a fresh-off-the-grill main course, and you have one of summer's most spectacular condiments.

Needless to say, with such variety at hand, you could go on eating pesto several times a week. Which is exactly what I love to do at this time of year.

Linguine with pesto, sun-dried tomatoes and arugula

Serves 6

1/4 cup pine nuts

1 pound uncooked linguine, fettuccine, or other pasta strands

24 whole fresh basil leaves

4 garlic cloves, peeled

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, cut into thin julienne strips

8 ounces baby arugula leaves

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Put the pine nuts in a small, dry skillet. Place the skillet over low heat and cook the pine nuts, stirring frequently, until they darken slightly in color, two to three minutes. Immediately transfer the pine nuts to a small dish or plate and set them aside to cool.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a full rolling boil. Add the linguine and cook it until al dente, tender but still chewy, following the manufacturer's suggested cooking time.

While the pasta is cooking, make the pesto: In a food processor fitted with the stainless-steel blade, or a blender, combine the basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts and salt. Process, or blend on high speed, until smoothly pureed, stopping several times as necessary to scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

As soon as the pasta is done cooking, drain it, reserving 1 cup of its cooking water. Transfer the drained pasta to a mixing bowl. Add the pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, arugula leaves and balsamic vinegar. Toss well, adding just enough of the reserved cooking water while you toss to help the pesto coat the pasta thoroughly and evenly.

With pasta serving spoons, transfer the linguine to individual large, shallow serving bowls, making sure that each serving gets a fair share of the sun-dried tomatoes and arugula leaves. Serve immediately, passing freshly grated Parmesan cheese for each person to add to taste.