Tahini

Makes 2 portions

Ingredients

• 50g sesame
• olive oil

As always, good things take time to make. Making your own tahini, in my experience, will improve some recipes significantly.

To make it, just roast husk free sesame seeds (this is what I normally find in stores) in a pot or pan: over high heat, continuously and energetically toss or mix the seeds. They need to uniformly roast, otherwise you will get both raw and burnt sesame. Do not let them smoke too much. Once the roasted sesame smell is filling the kitchen, put them in a blender and blend them. Do not leave them in the pan! even a few seconds will fuck up the sesame at the bottom, even after they are off the heat.

An all-metal pan or pot is best: the temperatures can get so high that coatings will burn.

Once the sesame is blended to a deliciously smelling powder, move it to a container and add oil for preserving. I use olive oil because I am italian and this is what I like. It will shrink in volume so much you can fit a lot of it in a tiny container. This will keep for months.

If you need to dehydrate whatever you are using the tahini with, do not add the oil. Just use the powder.

Section author: Davide