Brendan & Lori O'Gara

How can I choose just one delicious thing? I’ve eaten at five stars and sat at dirty picnic tables at the beach each with equally delicious things in front of me. My husband, daughter, mother, and countless other family and friends have over the years offered me delicious food.

All of that aside, the most delicious thing I have ever eaten in my life was green gravy.

When I was about 10 years old my mom took me to a pool party at our pastor’s house. It was a hot day in Florida. The pastor’s wife was an Italian immigrant or at the very least first generation American. They were both in their sixties or so. The swimming pool was filled to the max with generations of Italians. One little boy kept asking if the green gravy was ready. He was starving the way children get when swimming and playing. “What is green gravy?” I asked.

I was escorted by one of the little Italians to the kitchen where the matriarch was cooking huge pots of pasta and sauces. The little kid said , “Noni, tell Lori about green gravy.”

“It’s pesto made from the basil grown just outside this window” she said. I followed her to the small herb garden where she picked a bowl full of basil right off the plants. Back in the kitchen she put the leaves in a food processor, added other things and whirled it around. She then simmered it in the stove in a saucepan. The smell was divine. After what seemed like forever in my childish mind, she poured the green gravy into a huge bowl on top of perfect spaghetti pasta folding that yumminess all together. She handed me a paper plate with a mound of green gravy coated noodles. It was nothing like anything I had ever tasted before in my entire life.

From that day foreword pesto is forever known as green gravy and that first taste of the warm sauce was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten.

Light & Love, Lori