Basil Pesto

My fresh pesto is one of my proudest moments. It’s wickedly delicious. Try this pesto on pasta, rice, bread, crackers, or pizza. It is spectacular simply spread on bread, with Parmesan cheese and fire-roasted red peppers on top, then heated up in the toaster oven. The scent of basil triggers the brain to experience joy, so have a whiff and rejoice.

Ingredients

3 cups packed fresh basil, cleaned and de-stemmed
3 cloves of garlic
¼ -½ cup olive oil (see how it goes)
¼ cup pine nuts
5 oz. Parmesan, Romano, or Asiago cheese
¼ tsp. black pepper
salt to taste

Directions

Put all the ingredients into a food processor and whirl until creamy smooth. Be careful with the olive oil, don’t add too much. Start out with about ¼ cup and add more if needed to get the consistency right. Here is the secret to exceptional pesto: basil flowers. The most tasty pesto is made from fresh basil, picked straight from the garden, cleaned, and thrown directly into the food processor. There is nothing finer. I have found that adding some basil flowers into the mix does something indescribably special to the flavor. It’s the taste of summer.

Basil can be frozen in Ziploc bags and tastes surprisingly fresh when defrosted months (and even a year) later.

Eat well, be well, live deliciously!