homemade pesto

Guess what folks? Not only did I NOT kill my little herb garden, my plants are THRIVING! Check out my basil above. I'm fairly certain that had I not cut it back yesterday, it might have broken through my ceiling into the third floor apartment. Yup, my thumb is officially green.

So I decided to finally put all this basil to good use. What's the best thing to make with basil? If you answered anything besides pesto, you'd be wrong. Except maybe if you said caprese salad. That is also an acceptable answer. But, mainly, pesto. Pesto is more right.

What I'm getting to here is that I made homemade pesto! I apologize that the picture below is rather unattractive. It's just really hard to make green sauce look appetizing. But, I promise you, this pesto is perfection. It's an Ida Garten recipe...so it's basically guaranteed to be fantastic. That Ina, she does not disappoint. Side note: I have this not-so-secret obsession with Ina Garten. Like, if I was 30 years older, I think we would be BFF's. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm basically a grandmother already. Ina and I are like soul mates.

Like most Ina Garten recipes, this one makes a ridiculous amount of food. I ended up making a half batch of this recipe and it still made plenty. In fact, I had more than enough and ended up divvying tablespoons of the leftover pesto into an ice cube tray and freezing it for future use. Sheesh, what an Ina-ish thing to do.

So here's the plan. Make this pesto...or buy pre-made pesto if your thumb is not super green like mine. Then, tomorrow, I'll be bringing you a delicious fish recipe that will utilize said pesto. Okay? Meet you here tomorrow...same time, same place. :)


Homemade Pesto

Ingredients:
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup pine nuts
3 Tbsp chopped garlic (9 cloves)
5 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups olive oil
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Place the walnuts, pine nuts, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process for 30 seconds.

Add the basil leaves, salt, and pepper. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube and process until the pesto is finely pureed. Add the Parmesan and puree for a minute.

Serve, or store the pesto in the refrigerator or freezer with a thin film of olive oil on top.

Yield: 4 cups
Source: Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics