Besto Pesto

I have avoided making pesto in the past because I had trouble paying the price for basil at the grocery story. Then, I decided to grow my own! I could have used seed (which I did for my dill and oregano) but instead I bought one small plant at Lowe's Home Improvement. My basil bush grew huge. A few weeks ago, I harvested a couple of bunches, used a few ingredients I had hand and made a great pesto! Yesterday, we had a great pasta salad with black olives, grape tomatoes, and bowtie past with the pesto. The perfect compliment to "crock pot baby back ribs" (see the recipe on this blog). 

1 cup packed fresh basil 

1/4 cup walnuts 

3 - 4 cloves garlic 

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese 

1/2 cup good extra virgin olive oil 

Salt and Pepper to taste 

 Using your food processor or blender, pulse the walnuts and garlic cloves until they are like a corn meal consistency. Next, add basil and pulse until it is well incorporated. Next add in the Parmesan and pulse a few times to mix it up. Drizzle olive oil as you process. Taste. Add Salt and Pepper as you like. This will store in the fridge for a 3 - 4 days. Or for 3 months in the freezer. Use it on pizza dough for a great homemade pizza. Boil some bow tie pasta and add ask much or as little as you like to the hot pasta. Put in some of the pasta water and it will make a wonderful pesto cream sauce. The possibilities are many.