About Pesto and Peanut Butter

Pesto and peanut butter may sound completely random to you. You're probably thinking that they have nothing in common with each other (except for the fact that Sarah and I love both of them.) You're thinking that this blog could be about any two random tastes: pesto and strawberry or peanut butter and tomato juice, for example. Well, I guess if our two favorite things were in fact pesto and strawberries then that would be what our blog is about. But after Sarah and I chose our two favorite-never can get sick of-food items we realized that they actually have a lot in common. Pesto and peanut butter are kind of the same thing.

The word "pesto" literally means to pound, to crush. It's a flavorful paste combining garlic, nuts and oil with vegetables or herbs. "Peanut butter" is a food paste made primarily from dry roasted peanuts that have been pound or crushed! See, they're the same! And they both involve nuts. So in a sense, peanut butter is just one variation of pesto. There are so many variations of pesto. I've made a few myself. I've made the classic basil pesto, I've made basil spinach pesto and arugula pesto and even pistachio cranberry pesto!! So, I'm going to admit that when we say that we will try Syrian food with pesto that we will not always be using the same pesto on every recipe. We will probably usually use our basic recipe, but sometimes when we want to be more adventurous or when we feel like the basic pesto will not be the best match with the Syrian dish, we will use any pesto of our choice. So this blog will also be a chance for us to experiment with and discover new pesto variations!