Monday, June 9, 2014

Pesto with Home Grown Basil

After my herb harvest this evening I searched around online for a yummy sounding pesto recipe and found quite a few. I tweaked one that sounded really good to me and it came out quite delicious.

Recipe: 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts, 3 cloves garlic, 4 cups packed tightly washed and air dried basil leaves, 1/2 tsp sea salt, fresh cracked black pepper, 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Directions: pulse together pine nuts and garlic cloves until you get a finely chopped mix, stopping just before it turns to a paste, add basil leaves, sea salt, black pepper and pulse until the leaves are very finely chopped. While processor is on drizzle olive oil into mixture and pulse until combined. Add cheese and pulse a few more times, I sprinkled a little parmesan cheese on top and added a few basil leaves as garnish.

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From what I read the cheese shouldn't be combined unless you're going to use it right away or refrigerate it for a few days. If you're going to freeze the pesto for later use don't add the cheese until you defrost it.

It is indeed scrumptious! Since we're not eating bread, which is my favorite way to eat pesto I'm going to be experimenting with new recipes. Tomorrow I'm going to make zucchini 'pasta' and add some sun dried tomatoes in addition to the pesto for our supper and serve chicken tenderloin stuffed with the pesto and topped with cheeses.

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Any other recipes you'd care to offer that are tried and truly delicious welcome!

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