Inside My Mid-life Crisis

Making home-made pesto is simple and delicious. Use as a pasta sauce, a spread on crusty bread or add to olive oil and good white wine vinegar for a salad dressing. Pure, fresh ingredient flavors pack a punch and a little goes along way so not a big calorie fiend.

2 C fresh basil (just leaves, pick the stems off)
1 C grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2 C pine nuts (toast if you like/raw is ok too)
2 cloves garlic (rough chop)
1/2 C olive oil (approximately)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Place basil, Parmesan, pine nuts and garlic into food processor or blender. Add half the olive oil and pulse to blend.
Continue adding olive oil a bit at a time and pulse in between until you reach your desired consistency. I like mine fairly smooth. Taste the pesto and add salt and pepper to taste.
That is all there is to it. I buy my basil and pine nuts at Trader Joe's, they have the best price on the pine nuts which can be spendy. The basil is also very reasonable there and one container is about the 2 C needed. This is an easy recipe to make larger or smaller batches.

You can also add parsley in with the basil for a little different flavor. Some people substitute parsley and walnuts for the basil and pine nuts; called "winter pesto" and offers a different spin on classic pesto. MANGA MANGA!