all about Pesto

Last year I started a radical diet.  I cut out carbs, not completely but mostly.  Before you start to complain or give advice I have to tell you this was at the suggestion of my doctor.  How does this tie into pesto?  Well I went out for lunch one day to La Scala the Italian restaurant and ordered a sandwich.  It came with pesto mayo, so I kindly asked if they could replace that with just pesto.  Ah HA! The point is that pesto became my favorite condiment and pizza topping of all time.  🙂  So last summer I planted 6 basil plants so that I could experiment with pesto recipes.  😉  This year due to the untimely death of a plant or two and the adoption of Suzie I have 4 plants.  So lets make pesto.

Some Fresh Cut Basil

Our washed and ready basil. I can’t stress how important it is to wash and spin dry your basil, that is unless you like a little extra protein.

My favorite part of prepping garlic is the SMACK!

Our ingredients:

1/3 cup pine  nuts
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/4 teaspoon of salt and freshly ground pepper
olive oil

Here we are, all the ingredients but the oil in the food processor (or blender) ready to pulse.

Run the processor until you get a nicely fine chopped consistency. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and pulse once more. Now you are ready to add the oil. Let the processor run and carefully poor a steady stream of oil into the bowl.  This is where the “guess” of how much oil happens.  You want to make it a nice consistency for most things and maybe a little more oily for pasta, and maybe thicker for pizza topping. 

Here are a few of the finished product. Sorry for the crappy picture but Suzie broke my $400 flash on Friday and this is the best that I could do Sunday morning.  To store place into container and cover with a small layer of olive oil to keep the basil from turning black.  You can place them in the freezer for use this winter!!