Make some PESTO!!!!

HOMEMADE PESTO!!

This one's SUPER easy and sooo delicious!

Once you master this (which isn't hard at all), you can begin to experiment with other herb and oil blends to make unique and scrumptious rubs, dressings and whatever else you can possibly fathom.

 I got tons of fresh basil from the farmer's market last week, nothin better than to make a huge batch of fresh pesto!

Here are just a few tips before we get started.

 Separate the leaves from the stems and pile into your food processor, a blender works fine too.
If I have a lot of them, I usually pulse them one handful at a time until they move freely about the cabin. It's much easier to work with that way.

Your nuts! A traditional pesto recipe calls for pine nuts, which I personally think taste the best, but they can also be very expensive, so feel free to substitute with walnuts like I did here. I'm sure other nuts would be great too, just experiment!

 INGREDIENTS:   makes a little more than a cup

2 Cups fresh basil leaves, packed

1/2 Cup Freshly Grated Parmesan or Romano

1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/3 Cup Pine Nuts or Walnuts

3 Medium Garlic Cloves

A splash of Lemon Juice

S&P to taste

1. Add basil and nuts to food processor and pulse until chopped fairly well.

2. Add garlic and pulse a few more times.

3. Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while on slow.

4. Then do the same with the lemon juice.

5. Add cheese and pulse until blended.

6. S&P to taste

Pesto can be made in large amounts and frozen in ice cube trays for future use. Just omit the cheese as it doesn't freeze well. Pop out the cubes into a freezer bag and use as many as you'd like at a time.

Mmmm...mmm! Now you can put it on anything your lil heart desires!

Pasta, eggs, salad, crostini with goat cheese, whatever! Mixing it with something creamy will help tone down the garlic and bring out the basil goodness!

One of my favorite snacks right now is spreading it on an everything bagel with a little mayo then stacking tons of veggies on top and a slice of provolone=GUD!