A couple of weeks ago I decided to make pesto. I looked at the recipe in the book and it called for a measly amount of cheese and nuts. My recipe, on the other hand, calls for more than double the amount. I was this close to making it anyway but my daughter is a big fan of my pesto and I just couldn’t chance it. I would really hate to disappoint my lil girl. So, ok, I’m cheating a little because this isn’t Deborah Madison's recipe, but I think it's fine. It's not like there's a blog police or anything.
I gathered all my ingredients. It's really easy to remember the amounts of everything:
Maria's Pesto
1 cup nuts (walnuts or pine nuts. I usually use walnuts because pine nuts are crazy expensive)
1 package of Trader Joe's Basil (or 2 cups Basil)
5 cloves of garlic (less if you’re not that into garlic. We LOVE garlic)
1 cup of olive oil
1 cup of parm cheese (I usually add more than a cup though)
Salt and fresh pepper to taste
This recipe is very easy if you have a food processor. The only pain in the arse is cleaning the basil. Thankfully I have a little helper. Here my daughter is separating the basil from the stems. Notice the erase board with a very old menu.
I wash each leaf then I leave it drying in the dish rack and on some paper towels. Super annoying process.
I throw the dry and clean basil into the food processor along with the garlic and the nuts.
Once that’s all chopped up I slowly add the oil through the chute.
After that’s done I add the cheese along with salt and pepper and let the food processor do its till it’s nice and smooth. Here's my daughter giving it a taste test. She said it was delicious but dummy me didn’t listen and I added more salt. After that it was waay too salty. I had to add more nuts to account for the saltiness.
That's it! Easy peasy!
Tomorrow I'll post another dish I made but right now I need to hang out with the husband.
Till tomorrow!
