Our family goes gaga for pesto. We put it on grilled chicken, pasta, on toasty French bread and mozzarella. Sometimes Thing Two scoops it up with a spoon and eats it straight. This is a recipe that's simple and quick.
Start with 2 cups fresh basil. Mine came from the garden (one $1.99 plant in early spring produced enough leaves for several harvest fests plus a triple batch of pesto. I only have a teeny food processor so I have to do the basil first to make room for the other ingredients. Pulse to pulverized.
Pine nuts are the most expensive part of homemade pesto. One 1/2 cup bag is about $4-5. Maybe I should have shopped online...
Add 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and 2 cloves garlic. Pulse to pulverize.
Your finished recipe should look like this: make sure the pine nuts and basil leaves are pulsed to smooth and creamy. That's it!!
I put my pesto in ice cube trays to freeze. When I'm ready to cook with pesto I grab two cubes and the meal is fabulous.
Tip: I will frequently put marinade in a plastic baggie with chicken and freeze. While it's thawing for a meal, the marinade is working its magic and I don't have to wait the extra 30 minutes for it to sit. The flavor is stronger that way, since it's had more time to, well, marinate.
Homemade Basil Pesto
2 cups fresh basil, remove stems and wash thoroughly
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup EVOO
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 cloves garlic, pressed
Tiny bit salt and pepper
Pulverize in a food processor until smooth. Makes about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of pesto.
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