When life gives you basil... make pesto

For some reason I have misplaced my camera again. I'm hoping hubs knows where my pregnant mind has put it ;) I was going to post a picture of our growing basil plants but instead you all will have to close your eyes and imagine a beautiful plant of bright green basil leaves. I love basil. I use it in everything from salads to sauces to eggs. It adds such a lovely flavor to everything.  This year we planted 3 basil plants, one of which is thai basil. I am excited to start using the abundance of our garden again in cooking.

So with spring in full swing now and our basil plants growing strong I thought I'd post a simple pesto recipe for you all, in case you are planting some basil this year or see some at the market and don't know how to use it all up before it goes bad. If you have never planted basil before it is one of the easiest plants. I kill almost everything but can keep herbs alive. Especially now that you can buy them in a pot already planted and all you have to do is water it. Basil will grow all summer and year round if you just trim it up and use the leaves. So easy. So delicious. So here is a basic recipe for basil, I don't have real measurements so this is the closest I can do. You can do some many things with it from this recipe but I'll leave that to your imagination :)

Pesto

1 bunch basil (about 20 leaves)

2 cloves garlic

handful of pinenuts or walnuts (about 1/4 cup)

handful of parmesan cheese (about 1/4 cup)

olive oil (up to 1/4 cup)

salt and pepper

Directions: Put the peeled garlic cloves in a food processor with the nuts and pulse until roughly chopped. Cut the leaves off the stem and throw them in. As you pulse the basil leaves in add the olive oil at a steady stream. When it begins to come together stir in the parmesan cheese and salt&pepper. If it seems too think pulse a little more olive oil in. Or you can leave it thicker and when you add it to pasta incorporate a little pasta water to the pesto and it will stick to the pasta better.

When I make this up I normally portion out 2 tablespoons of pesto into plastic bags to use later as pesto goes a long way with a little amount. It makes a great spread for sandwiches as well, or to add to grilled anything. Really you can put pesto on almost anything and you will fall in love.

Enjoy :)