- 12
Ingredients
- 4 cups fresh basil, loosely packed
- 3-4 cloves arlic, diced
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup walnuts or pine nuts
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
Preparation
Step 1
In a food processor, place basil, garlic, nuts, Parmesan cheese and the sugar. Pulse food processor on and off until all ingredients are blended, scraping the sides of the bowl as often as possible. Total blending time will be about 20 seconds.
Wit the machine running, drizzle the olive oil into the feed tube until all of the oil has been used. Again, scrape the sides of the bowl often to make sure everything is well blended.
To store, you can do one of two things:
1 Pour pesto ito a small container (1/2 pound round butter tub), then carefully drizzle 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil on top of the pesto. Can be stored in the refrigerator for a week or in the freezer for 6 months.
2 Spoon pesto into compartments of an ice cube tray. Freeze for 4-6 hours. Remove frozen cubes from tray and place in small ziplock or vacuum seal bags. Return cubes to the freezer. Can be stored for 6 months.
To serve the entire mixture:
place pesto in a bowl. Reserve 1 to 1 1/4 cups of the hot water from the cooking pasta. Mix the hot water with the pesto to get a reasonably loose suace. (when mixed with the pasta, the nuts and the cheese in the pesto will thicken the sauce considerably). Drain pasta and place in a large serving bowl. Pour pesto mixture over the pasta and toss well to mix well. Serve immediately.
For individual servings:
Place 2 cubes of pesto in a medium bowl (for one person). For each additional person, add 1 more cube per person. Reserve 1/4 cup of hot water for a single (2 cubes) person and about 1/8 cup of hot water for each additional person. Mix pesto with the hot water to get a reasonably loose sauce (when mixed with the pasta, the nuts and the cheese in the pesto will thicken the sauce considerably). Drain pasta and place in a bowl. Pour pesto mixture over the pasta and toss well to mix well. Serve immediatley.