Pesto Pasta

When my first son was trying out solid foods, my mother would often be heard to say "Are you sure you want to give him that? It's such a strong flavor"


My opinion was - if I wanted him to like variety and flavor I had to give him variety and flavor from the begining.


I think it worked. To this day both kids have gone through fussy periods, but some of their favorite foods have always been things with FLAVOR.





Take pasta with pesto sauce, they have ALWAYS LOVED it.





I plant as much basil as I can each year and make as much pesto as I can with it before the tomatoes start coming in, because then it's all about the tomato sauce.


This year is no exception. I've got 3 cups of frozen pesto already and we've eaten at least that much fresh on pasta or as a pizza sauce.



And pesto is SIMPLE!


REALLY!!!





Simple Basil Pesto


Approx 1 Cup Basil Leaves


1/4-1/2 C Olive Oil


2 -4 cloves Garlic (to taste)


1/4 - 1/2 C Grated Hard Cheese (Parmesan/Romano etc)


& 1/3 C Nuts (see note)


First rinse and pat dry the basil leaves.
Place the basil, nuts, & garlic in the bowl of your food processor along with about half the oil.
process in pulses adding more oil until it is the consistency of thick paste.

Scrape out of the food processor directly onto hot, drained pasta or into a container and refridgerate or freeze.


Note- Traditionalists insist on using pine nuts in pesto. I almost never have those on hand, so I use a variety of other nuts, sometimes in combination - it gives the right texture and a lot of nutrition to the sauce.Over the past few years I have used: Almonds, walnuts, and pecans. But use whatever you like, and whatever you have on hand.