Besto Pesto ( or a way to use up the Basil gone wild)

The basil plant that I put in the home depot bucket on the back porch has gone ape with all this rain and was starting to seed all over the place, so I decided we needed to put at least some of it to good use. This is a simple pesto that is good on pasta or bread. All you need to make it is parmesan, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts and of course, Basil. I had a little bit of parsley, so I used that too.

The pine nuts may sound exotic, but I got mine at "the Walmart's" , right there hanging out by the chocolate chips and pecans. Don't be afraid of them. They don't taste like pinesol. You can substitute walnuts for them if you can't find them or have a fear of the unknown.

Anyway, here's how I did it.
In the bowl of food processor, dump:
1/2 cup pine nuts
5-6-7-cloves garlic, peeled. ( use however many you want, I did 7.)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2-3 cups basil leaves ( rinsed and dried in papertowel)
2 tbsp fresh parsley ( if you have it - nosweat if you don't)

Pulse this a little to break up the nuts, then drizzle the olive oil in with the processor running just until you get some good motion. It is supposed to be pasty, not runny.
Then add in about 1/3 cup of the parmesan cheese. ( the powdered kind will not be as good - go ahead and buy the grated kind or grate your own)

Taste it and adjust salt and pepper. Keep in mind that the flavor will intensify some as it sits a while. You might want to even add some cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes, but I didn't because I live in the land of pepper wimps.

It will be a lot lighter in color than the basil was on it's own, but it does darken some when you put it in your pasta dish or on your bread. This particular recipe made 3- 4 oz jars. I'll show you how to do the pasta one day this week when I make it. Tonight we are having pesto burgers!

Store it in sealed containers in the fridge. I hear tell that you can freeze it if you leave out the parm and then just add it in when you thaw it. I figure three jars we will use before they go bad, so I ain't freezing it.

Some kids like to lick the frosting or batter bowl.........

Mine is into the finer things in life.......she is so strange!