Nessun...Pesto?

So out of the blue, I started cooking about a year and a half ago. I can't explain why, it just happened. As part of my culinary journey, I have endeavored to make several dishes that I became addicted to in my 15 years in Bella Italia. Chief among them is pesto. I cannot describe my love of pesto in words, it is just indescribable. Virginia has an amazing garden and one of the things that is growing in abundance is fresh basil. Fresh basil is actually my absolute favorite smell in the world so it's no surprise that I have decided to try my hand at making fresh pesto. I'd planned on trying it ever since we lived in Italy but I just was never adventurous enough to try it since I've never cooked anything that I couldn't microwave before. However, once I started cooking, something awoke in me and I just enjoyed it so much that when I had all these beautiful, fresh ingredients from Virginia's garden, I just felt inspired...So I learned how to make fresh pesto and it was surprisingly easy. I've made it a few times with mixed results but each time has generally been good.

But today...Today I made a huge batch and it was just so unbelievably good that it reminded me of a symphony as all the note were struck perfectly and in such complete harmony that it left me speechless. Well, almost speechless; I wrote a Facebook post about it that I thought would have made a great blog post and since I'm trying to revive the blog and start getting away from Facebook, I thought I'd repost it here for posterity because, quite honestly, I think it's one of the cooler things I've written. And so here it is, in its entirety:

I mentioned Pavarotti's "Nessun Dorma" in my post about my perfect pesto and as I revisited the video and the song, it occurred to me that my entire pesto making process today is perfectly represented in Pavarotti's performance, almost as if by fate. It started out slowly, just some simple kosher salt and garlic. Next, the real meat of the aria begins, the fresh basil...it just starts to hit the high note but then comes back down before you get too excited when you add in the pine nuts...they provide a measure of softness to the madness and bring you back down to Earth but it becomes obvious that this is building towards something really special. Next comes the Parmeggiano Reggiano which softens it even further and almost lulls you into sleep but then suddenly you finish it off with the extra virgin olive oil and then you stir and stir and stir and finally....if you did everything right, your pesto reaches a crescendo of epic proportions, just as Pavarotti hits the perfect high note in the third "Vincero"...you close your eyes and you can feel yourself on the Ligurian coast enjoying all the best things Italy has to offer. And then, just like that, it's over...finished too soon. But the sensation will stay with you the rest of your life. Bravo, maestro...