Recipe: Perfect Pesto

The last pesto of the season is always delicious but also a little sad.  I suppose not having fresh pesto all winter just makes it more delicious in the spring.  I’ll try to make this quick and painless so I don’t miss it too much.  Pesto is so, so, so simple to make and absolutely one of my favorite foods.

You’ll need:

4 cups of washed basil with stems and flowers removed

1 cup of pine nuts

¼ - ½ cup of olive oil

4 cloves of garlic

1/8 teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon of salt

garlic scapes

¼ cup of parsley

We typically pick basil right into the salad spinner, then we can collect it, wash and dry it really easily.

Its important to sample your ingredients.

In your food processor, combine pine nuts and garlic and pulse a few times to start your chopping.  Add the basil, parsley and scapes, probably in two batches.  Add the olive oil to keep things moving as you continue chopping with the food processor.  Last but not least, add the salt and pepper.

We used to use a blender, but after two were destroyed by making this recipe, we invested in a real food processor.  Blenders are for smoothies, not nuts.

It will keep for up to a week in a tightly sealed container in the fridge, but we've never been able to last that long with out eating it all.

Our favourite way to eat it is on pasta with tomatoes from the garden. Beyond pasta, it is essential on tomato sandwiches, wonderful on pizza and our old roommate even used to eat spoonfuls straight out of the fridge in the middle of the night.     

Stayed tuned for a post on BBQed pesto pizza by the end of the week.