Pretty Pesto

First time making pesto and I used a recipe that I snagged from All Recipes. Kudos!

• 3 cups packed fresh basil leaves
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (pine nuts are supposed to be superior, but they're also superiorly expensive. The nuts can be substituted with almonds or walnuts)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (optional and I didn't use parsley in my recipe)

I don't have a heavy duty blender but went out and got a $17 hand blender that seemed to do the trick. I chopped the basil and used the blender on it in batches. Same thing for nuts. Then I combined everything, blended and now have a kick arse batch of pesto. I truly think the trick to pesto (other than having an awesome blender) is fresh, fresh ingredients, stellar olive oil (Thanks Wagoners for my Chilean EVOO!!!) and good cheese. Once the summer hits, the basil will be better and I'd probably get a slightly saltier cheese (I threw in a pinch of salt).

I put blubs of the pesto in zip lock bags and froze them for future use. Easy to take out the morning of the day you'd like to use it for an evening meal - defrosted and ready to go.