Roast Corn with Deconstructed Pesto

The last few years pine nuts have been way out of sight price wise.  I don’t know if the whole Italian economy was propped up on pine nut futures, but I felt that $40 a pound was just too much to pay.  So today when I noticed that my basil crop was in need of a good harvesting I decided to make half a pesto.

What is half a Pesto?  I just wanted to chop the Basil with very little olive oil and lots of garlic.  My thinking behind this is I can use that as a base and add what ever I want at the time of using it.  Tonight I roasted corn on the grill and spread the partial pesto on each ear and then sprinkled Parmesan over each ear.  The only part of traditional pesto that was left out were the pine nuts.  We did not miss them a bit.

2 T. olive oil

150 basil leaves

7 cloves of Garlic

Put the oil and the garlic in the cuisineart and pulse until the garlic is minced.  Add the basil and run the machine until the basil is finely minced.  This will make about a cup of Pesto Base.  Keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or freeze it in for up to a year.

1 T. of Parmesan Cheese for each ear of corn

Corn – You may want more than one ear per person

Heat the grill on high.  Husk corn, and wet the ear.  Place on grill and closed lid.  Cook for 8 mins. Until grill marks start to blacken the kernels.  Roll the corn ¼ turn and close the lid and cook another 3 minutes.  Repeat until the whole ear has been rotated all the way around.

When you remove the corn from the grill, brush with the pesto base and sprinkle cheese all over and enjoy!