Home-Made Pesto -- And A Full Dinner For Once!

After trying my hand at home-made marinara sauce (from here, obviously, where else?) I concluded that canned, bottled, or boxed absolutely pales in comparison to what you can make from scratch. Jarred pesto is lovely, but fresh is ten times better, albeit expensive at the local grocery store. So I dusted off my mom's never-used food processor and decided this past weekend I'd try my hand at making it from scratch.

The results? As expected, I don't ever want to go back to jarred pesto again--unless I make it myself of course! It's fairly inexpensive, the priciest ingredient being the pine nuts. This summer I hope to have a little windowsill herb garden with loads of basil, which I'm sure will make this recipe even more fresh and full tasting.

I've been realizing lately that although I've been a recipe fiend lately, I'm not so good at the side dishes. So I made this into a full meal for Boyfriend and I: The pesto was tossed with angel hair and apple chicken sausage with a quick caprese salad (tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, and sliced basil with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon) and "home-made" garlic bread (store-bought french bread sliced lengthwise and baked with butter and garlic at 400 degrees for about seven minutes). Paired with a light Chardonnay it was reminiscent of when I worked in an Italian restaurant.




A great Saturday night dinner indeed!

Home-Made Pesto
Makes about 2 cups

• 4 to 6 Cups Fresh Basil, packed
• 5 Cloves Garlic
• 1/2 Cup Olive Oil
• 1/4 Cup Pine Nuts
• 1/4 Cup Almonds
• Salt and Pepper to taste

-Add all ingredients to food processor and pulse until desired consistency is reached--I found that pulsing the nuts first until ground fine, then adding the dry ingredients and pulsing until blended, then adding the oil until mixed throughly works best.