Potato Skewers with Pesto
In the off season I lament having to purchase basil in the grocery store, but then in-season I have the adverse problem by getting frustrated with how quickly basil grows in my garden, feeling a constant need to find uses for it. When you have a ton of basil, the top move is always pesto, and that's exactly what I did with a plethora of the ubiquitous herb right before a Meatwave last spring. So now instead of having a ton of basil, I had a ton of pesto and wanted to put it to use while I had crowd coming and decided to pair it up with grilled baby Yukon gold potatoes as a simple, but very tasty side.
I kept waffling back and forth between making pesto by hand in a mortar and pestle or in the food processor. The former tends to result in a smoother and more creamy end product, but the later is fast and easy and really tastes about the same to me. With so much other prep for the Meatwave going on, I decided to go the simple route this time around and dumped basil, garlic, and pine nuts in the food processor.
After pulsing those until they were finely chopped, I kept the motor running and drizzled in extra-virgin olive oil until the sauce reached the desired thick, but still pourable consistency. Finally, the addition of parmesan and a seasoning with salt and pepper completed the pesto preparation.
A main element of this dish was supposed to be its ease of preparation compared to my usual more involved recipes. As I was skewering up the halved Yukon golds though, it just felt a little too simple to me and I thought a good and not overly burdensome addition would be stacks of red onion between the potatoes. I figured a little sweetness and crunch from the onion would enhance the final skewers in way that made it worth the effort.
To cook the skewers, I first brushed them with oil and seasoned them with salt and pepper before placing them over indirect heat on the grill. I let the spuds cook, covered, until I was able to pierce the flesh with a pairing knife with little to no resistance. It took just north of 20 minutes for all the potatoes to be done, and during the cooking time I occasionally flipped and rotated the skewers so they would cook evenly and all have a bit of browning on them.
Once done, I stacked the skewers up on a plate and spooned on the pesto before serving. I was pleased with how simple this was to put together, but the ease of making them didn't mean they were lacking in flavor. In fact, the strength of the pesto gave them a deep herbal, nutty, and garlicky character that stood out against the creamy spuds. The onions ended up doing exactly what I hoped they would by adding a soft crunch, but they also helped deliver more grilled flavor with their charred edges being noticeable. These were definitely a worthy use of all my basil, but there's so much of it in the summer, even unworthy uses of it are welcome.
