PESTO change-o

Green is in and although you'll probably not find the Hulk consuming pesto, it's the season to put it on your table. All sorts of ingredients and green herbs lend themselves to myriad seductive variations on the pesto theme. Peruse gourmet stores and supermarkets and you'll find a variety of choices, including artichoke lemon pesto, sun-dried tomato pesto, olive pesto and more. At home, you might blend up arugula pesto, hazelnut pesto, spinach and cheese pesto, sage pesto, cilantro-ginger pesto, cilantro-lime pesto or others. Some of the unusual ones developed by Cook's Illustrated magazine include arugula and ricotta, roasted mushroom, roasted red pepper and toasted nut and parsley pestos. The fresh, uncooked, versatile condiment or sauce has numerous applications spread it on crackers, crostini or sandwiches, toss it with hot cooked pasta, spoon it atop or in soups, dollop it on baked potatoes or omelets and spread it over tomato slices topped with fresh mozzarella cheese slices. You can also use a spoonful or two to perk up vinaigrette, mayonnaise or sour cream dressings, potato or macaroni salads, even casseroles or stove-top meals. Or serve alongside grilled fish, chicken or meats. And yes, it's a great base in place of tomato sauce atop a Boboli or pizza crust. It's one of many flavoring tricks available to cooks, notes Christopher Kimball, founder and editor of Cook's Illustrated. Pesto, from the Italian word pestare, meaning to pound or grind. Although purists insist on making it (from basil leaves, raw garlic, extra-virgin olive oil, pine nuts, grated cheese and salt) by using a mortar and pestle, the way it's been done in Liguria, Italy, for centuries, says Lou Seibert Pappas, author of 40 cookbooks (including the out-of-print "Pesto"), she has streamlined recipes to use a food processor, which is more practical for today's home cooks. The old-fashioned way "takes away the joy of something wonderful and quick," she adds. A blender can also be used, but "the food processor makes a sauce with a fine, more consistent texture," note the editors of Cook's Illustrated in "The America's Test Kitchen Cookbook." To tone down the raw garlic sting in pesto, the editors suggest blanching whole cloves in boiling water for under a minute prior to blending into the sauce. While pine nuts are traditionally used in Italian recipes, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, macadamia and even peanuts are possibilities for different flavor twists. Toasting the nuts brings out the flavor and can done in a dry skillet or for 30 to 60 seconds in a microwave oven (watch carefully to avoid burning). In the herb realm, besides basil, try Italian parsley, watercress, thyme, oregano, cilantro, mint, dill, tarragon and more either alone or in various combinations. We've even seen sesame seeds, dry mustard, soy sauce, rice vinegar and ginger stirred into an Asian-inspired cilantro-mint pesto. Although pesto is traditionally made with lots of olive oil, and many store-bought varieties are swimming in it, Pappas has reduced the amounts to lighten up her recipes. "They taste great without so much fat and more of the flavors come through," she adds. After testing, adapting and developing numerous recipes, we've taken the liberty to reduce the amounts of oil in many such as the artichoke, sun-dried tomato and zucchini pestos that follow with delicious results. But however much oil you opt to use, it's important that's it's really good olive oil, stresses Kimball. "You should buy really strong, harsh olive oil to stand up to the rest of the ingredients." If you plan to add pesto to pasta, dress the cooked pasta with fresh oil and the pesto and don't cook it. Basil pestos should be eaten immediately to avoid discoloration and loss of flavor. "Basil is like coffee," Kimball says. "It smells great but tastes awful sometimes." The soil the herb is grown in can make the difference in the taste. How fast the basil darkens (usually within a day or two in the fridge) depends on how old it is when you make the pesto and what kind of shape it's in, adds Pappas, noting that basil is more perishable than many other herbs like dill or oregano. Kimball freezes pesto in ice cube trays, then turns the cubes out into double bags and keeps them in the freezer through the winter about six months. Although frozen pesto does lose some flavor and discolors, he pops cubes into soups, pomodoro sauces, pot au feu and other dishes for a flavor boost. These days Kimball is partial to his chive and flat-leaf Italian parsley pesto, which must be used with discretion due to its strong flavor. "It's a snap to blend up a batch of pesto for a taste-tingling accent to innumerable dishes," notes Pappas, so get cooking. l=8!hair!!s721!s=8!dtpo st!Natalie Haughton, (818) 713-3692natalie.haughton@dailynews.com !dtpo st!