{homemade fries with pesto aioli}

Today I have a recipe for home-made fries with garlic pesto aoili.  Enough said.

Ok fine I'll give some background on this.... recently we were at very nice restaurant in Los Angeles for a private dinner and the line up on the menu was not messing around in the fancy department, but in a contradictory move from the kitchen the meal started off with fries being delivered to the table.  The fries surprised me at first because they seemed out of place among the other items on the way for dinner including quail, oysters, etc.  But you know what- really good homemade fries are just plain really good and so once I had a few I wasn't complaining one bit about their presence that evening. This experience led us to make up some fries along with a great twist on a traditional aoili as a snack before a nicer dinner the other night.

Perfecting good homemade fries is really quite difficult. So while I will tell you how we made these (at the bottom of this post), I also won't judge you if you just substitute the homemade ones for a pack of frozen ones from Trader Joe's.  We made a fabulous garlic pesto aioli to go along with these and it really turned out to be a shining star of this appetizer/snack rather than a simple dipping sauce so whether you make the fires yourself or cheat a little with the frozen ones please make sure not to leave out the pesto aioli.

CLASSIC HOMEMADE FRIES
what you need:

• 2 russet potatoes sliced into fries but not peeled
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• sea salt

1. Slice potatoes into wedges and toss with oil.
2. Lay out on baking sheet in a single layer.
3. Bake at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes- flipping once at 15 minutes
4. Remove once potatoes have browned and crisp.
5. Season with sea salt & fresh ground pepper

GARLIC PESTO AIOLI

what you need:

• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons of pre-made pesto (you can make it yourself if you have that kind of time on your hands)
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise

1. Combine mayo, pesto & finely chopped garlic cloves in bowl and serve immediately.