L'Art de Vivre

The French have it.  The Italians have it.  I'm trying to cultivate it.  L'Art de Vivre - the art of living.  My Belgian friend Monsieur Koen Caremaans, who lives in France, tells me "No Frenchman ever died of stress"; he is also fond of telling me a French proverb which translates as "take it easy in the morning, not too quickly in the afternoon".  
There are certain things that concern the French, of course, such as "is this peach unripe, will the fishmonger be open tomorrow morning, is that croissant fresh?".  Somehow these things gain an importance when you focus on living well.  When you take time to appreciate these small but lovely things.   A beautifully fresh, crumbly croissant with your morning coffee can put you in a good mood for a long time (just until lunch, in fact).

It is noticeable in France that at 12 noon, lunch becomes the main occupation.  I enjoy sitting on trains travelling through France, and the rustling of lunch bags and the opening of napkins (yes, even on a train with your packed lunch) signals the time of day.  There is also NO SNACKING between meals.  This definitely increases the enjoyment of your meals - you are ready for them and have been looking forward to them.   Especially if you have taken the time to purchase some ripe fruit ("this one is for today..this one for tomorrow" said a grocer who sold me some nectarines) and fresh vegetables and cooked your dinner from scratch. 

An ideal morning!

My Favourite Day of the Year

My favourite day of the year doesn't have a date.  It has a smell and a taste.  The day of basil harvest and pesto-making.  My pesto recipe is from Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook. The book was published in 2007 and I've made the pesto every year since then  - the page has slight green smears as remembrance of pesto times past.
The basil has to be home-grown for extra smugness and satisfaction.  The good news is you only need a large handful of leaves to make a satisfying jam-jar full of greeny goodness. Don't be tempted to use lesser-quality ingredients, this is all about celebrating the best of Summer in every dish you add it to.  I use my best olive oil, fresh Parmesan (for extra points on the smug-o-meter it was sent from my kind brother-in-law living in Italy), large, thin pine nuts from a local Mediterranean deli. (expensive but worth it), beautiful juicy garlic, a pinch of Camargue sea salt.

Pesto then, or Genoese mixture, is the classic, unsurpassable dressing, a kind of panacea: “Just pronouncing it would calm a riot on board ship”, so I was told by an old sailor who was at the command of a steamship of immigrants at the time of Edmondo de Amicis’s “Oceano”.
“Oil wins over the sea and Pesto wins over long faces!” he said.

Add the basil, a pinch of salt, 120 mL virgin olive oil, 25 g pine nuts, 2 garlic cloves, 50 g Parmesan (Parmigiano-Reggiano) cheese and also 2 tablespoons Pecorino or Grana Padano cheese (for an extra tang of luxury) to a blender (apologies to traditionalists who say it MUST be done with a pestle and mortar to reduce shredding and oxidation of the leaves and ruining the flavour - to make up for it I have included a link to the Pesto world championship recipe...).  Mix to a nice grainy texture.  For extra nutrition, you could substitute or add some lightly toasted walnuts, cashews or almonds to the pine nuts.
Add to a clean jar (Bonne Maman jam jars are the perfect size and the red and white lids look pretty against the green - add extra Waitrose complacent points) and press down with the back of a teaspoon before adding another trickle of oil to just cover it; this prevents air getting to it and encouraging mould).  Keeps nicely in the fridge for weeks but rarely needs to!

I eat it any time of day with anything - spread on toast, fish, chicken (eeek, not in Liguria! again apologies to my Italian ancestors...), stirred into rice or pasta, add to baked potatoes, soups, salads, sandwiches. The fruitiness of the Parmesan and the stinging kick of raw garlic really wake up your tastebuds while the clovey scent of fresh basil and the crunch of the salt entice your other senses.  I promise you will never go back to shop-bought once you have made your own. Let me know how you get on!

Nutritional composition of pine nuts (from Wikipedia)

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy	2,815 kJ (673 kcal)
Carbohydrates	13.1 g
Starch	1.4 g
Sugars	3.6 g
Dietary fiber	3.7 g
Fat	68.4 g
Saturated	4.9 g
Monounsaturated	18.7 g
Polyunsaturated	34.1 g
Protein	13.7 g
Vitamins
Vitamin A equiv. beta-carotene	(0%) 1 μg (0%) 17 μg
Thiamine (B1)	(35%) 0.4 mg
Riboflavin (B2)	(17%) 0.2 mg
Niacin (B3)	(29%) 4.4 mg
Pantothenic acid (B5)	(6%) 0.3 mg
Vitamin B6	(8%) 0.1 mg
Folate (B9)	(9%) 34 μg
Choline	(11%) 55.8 mg
Vitamin C	(1%) 0.8 mg
Vitamin E	(62%) 9.3 mg
Vitamin K	(51%) 53.9 μg
Minerals
Calcium	(2%) 16 mg
Iron	(42%) 5.5 mg
Magnesium	(71%) 251 mg
Manganese	(419%) 8.8 mg
Phosphorus	(82%) 575 mg
Potassium	(13%) 597 mg
Zinc	(67%) 6.4 mg
Other constituents
Water	2.3 g
Units μg = micrograms • mg = milligrams IU = International units
Percentages are roughly approximated usingUS recommendations for adults.