basic basil pesto

I'm sorry to be sharing such pornographic material so early in the morning, but, pesto. Today we're making some good ol' fashion, spread that shit on everything, pesto.

Pesto is one of those things that can instantly make everything taste better. Most notably used as a sauce to hug your pasta pillows, it can also be used on pretty much anything. Spread it on some crusty bread, dollop it on top of a salad, lick it from the spoon for all I care. But what I do care about is this -- that you make it a point to whip up some classic pesto this weekend.

We recently started watching this show called Rescue Me, about a group of firefighters going through life and documents the ups and downs of what it is to hold such a position. It's funny, it's lighthearted and sometimes kind of depressing, but much like the show, pesto basically Rescues Me from all things in life.

Not really, and telling you about this show has absolutely nothing to do with anything other than the fact that I felt like telling you, but I do bet dipping some bread into some of this pesto while watching the show would be pretty great.

I never promised to be reporting hard-hitting information here, so take all of this as you may.

It is a very good show, though.

With very few ingredients, you'll have perfect pesto in no time. In fact, you likely already have all of the ingredients in your pantry beside the pine nuts, because who honestly just keeps pine nuts in the house? Those shits are expensive and I've yet to understand why. But -- go buy a bag of them and then you'll have them for life.

Unless you make this every day like I used to do. 

Let's make some pesto.

basic basil pesto

(yields about 1 cup)

you'll need:

4 cups fresh basil

1/2 cup good quality olive oil

1/3 cup pine nuts (those assholes)

2-3 garlic cloves, peeled but not crushed

1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

1 tsp salt + black pepper to taste 

how to:

To a food processor, add fresh basil, pine nuts, and garlic cloves. Pulse several times until chopped, then add in your cheese and pulse several times more, stopping to scrape down the sides to keep it all uniform.

While the food processor is running, slowly stream the olive oil through the top piece, again stopping to scrape down the sides if needed. Adding the olive oil slowly while the food processor runs will help to keep the oil from separating and getting all weird looking.

I'll be completely honest with you -- in times of hurry, I've added everything all at once and just blended until a smooth paste was formed and it worked out fine. However, I do recommend adding it in slowly so that the pesto sits better -- especially if you'll be serving it in a bowl to use as a dip.

Finally, add in your salt + pepper to taste and give it a good stir.

Pesto can be made 1 day ahead of time and will last for a couple of days in the fridge if stored in a very airtight sealed container.

ENJOY!