Yields 10
Ingredients
1 cup tightly packed basil leaves
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup toasted pine nuts, walnuts, or pecans
½ teaspoon lemon juice
10 bocconcini, or 1 pound
1 small zucchini
10 grape-sized cherry tomatoes
10 basil leaves
Directions for Basil Pesto
For basil pesto, combine basil, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pine nuts in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process until pesto is smooth, and add lemon juice and additional salt to taste. Pesto should be pourable; add additional olive oil, if necessary, to thin it.
Pour pesto into a small bowl. Place bocconcini in the bowl and using a spoon, toss bocconcini to coat them with pesto. Set aside to marinate at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
Directions for Baubles
To construct baubles, place marinated bocconcini on a serving dish and drizzle with pesto. Slice zucchini into 10 thin rounds, each about ¼-inch thick. Spear each round of zucchini with a toothpick, pushing toothpick through zucchini so that it extends out about ½ inch. Push longer ends of toothpicks into bocconcini, so that zucchini are on top of bocconcini. Spear one tomato atop the toothpick extending up from each zucchini slice.
To serve, garnish baubles with basil leaves, placing basil leaf partially under the tomato.
Note: You may use any nut you have on hand for the pesto: pine nuts, walnuts, pecans, etc. The critical step is that the nuts be toasted because it enhances the flavor of the pesto.