Why I haven't gone to Sicily, or just Italy, beats me. Money? Time? Both! Whatever, I need to offload the excuses given the depth of their food and wine culture. Which brings me to my first sampling of Trapanese pesto, an almond, basil, and tomato infused paste. It blew my mind. More, it delighted my taste buds!

The jar was quickly devoured, finding its home on bread and its hearth annointing a steamy pasta. Since I always believe in local, I decided I'd make my own batch, improvising its basic parameters from the listed ingredients on this particular empty jar!

Yeah it's a grainy shot, but trust me, it's simple; basil 30 percent, tomatoes 20 percent, and then just use the rest of the list to go with instinct and feel. And so I used cherry tomatoes, unpeeled toasted almonds, French white wine vinegar (all out of Italian) the rest of the ingredients, and whizzed and grinded with my food processor till I dipped into the depths of the empty jar and made note of flavor. Was it good? Is Sicilian a lovely word to taste as well as pronounce? It was!

Try it… it's freaking delicious!