Easy Summer Pesto

Hey there, it's Jess.  At this time of the summer, there is so much great produce around!  This year, our garden has been doing surprisingly well, so I've been left to search many recipes involving zucchini, tomatoes, or (our most prolific herb) basil.  One of our favorite ways to use basil is making pesto.  This easy sauce can be tossed with pasta, added to scrambled eggs or stirred into soups.  Plus, it freezes so well, you can make up a giant batch this summer and stash it for the fall.  You can find a million different variations of a basic pesto, but we always use this recipe.  I'm not sure of the original source, but it was passed on to me by our aunt.  The original recipe is double of what I'm sharing here, so you can scale this up or down, depending on how much you want.

Basil Pesto

• 4 cups fresh basil leaves, loosely packed
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup pine nuts or walnuts
• 1/4- 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste

Add basil leaves to a food processor bowl with the chopping attachment inside and start to chop.   Add garlic, nuts, cheese, salt and pepper to the food processor and pulse until combined and chopped.  

Slowly, stream in the olive oil while pulsing the mixer to combine.  The amount of olive oil will depend on how thick or thin you want the pesto.  Ideally, you'll want a paste like mixture with a little moisture to it.  

Voila!  Your finished pesto can be added to cooked warm pasta or frozen right away.  If you're tossing it with pasta, my aunt recommends 1 cup pesto to 1 pound of pasta.  You can also add a little of the pasta's cooking liquid to make it saucier and always add more parmesan!  If you want to freeze your pesto, the easiest way is to pour it into ice cube trays or individual storage containers.  You can take them right from frozen to stir into soup or pasta.

So there you have it, a quick, delicious and easy way to use your summer basil!  Have you ever made pesto?  Let us know if you try the recipe in the comments below.