Basil Pesto is one of my favorite pasta toppings, but I don't have it that often because I have to wait for the plant to grow. Maybe this year I'll try a different type of basil that grows faster and has bigger leaves.
To make enough pesto for two people, you need the following:
lots of basil leaves
about a half cup of grated parmesan cheese
sunflower seeds (or pine nuts, or cashews)
1 clove of garlic
kosher salt
olive oil
First, pick your plant bare.
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| almost bare. It's like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree now. |
I'd say that's about a cup or so, if you pack it down.
Chop up a clove of garlic a little bit (because our tiny food processor doesn't actually chop up garlic all that well. If yours works, you don't need to chop it up) and throw it in the food processor along with the basil.
Now dump in about a half cup of sunflower seeds. You could also use pine nuts, which is the traditional way, but they're really expensive, and Angie doesn't like them all that much. I have used cashew nuts in the past, and that was also delicious. Using sunflower seeds makes me feel like I'm eating really healthy.
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| yes, i used parmesan from a jar. It's still pretty good. |
Spin it around a bit so it takes up less space, then dump in the cheese. That's about a cup there. Add less if you don't like cheese that much. But if you don't like cheese, then you're crazy and should just give your pesto to someone who will appreciate it.
Parmesan cheese is also pretty salty, so don't add any extra salt yet until you taste it.
Add some black pepper if you want also.
When it's all done, it should have a very moist consistency, so make sure you add enough olive oil. You can also use some water if you want.
Then just mix it up into some pasta of your choice (I like the spiral stuff for this, because it holds on to the pesto really well).
I was too lazy to make biscuits from scratch too, so these are the individually pre-frozen ones from pillsbury. They're yummy.
