Pesto

Don't you just love the smell of fresh basil? Oh man...I sure do. And don't you love the texture of parmesan cheese you've grated from a big block of the stuff? I do...it's so soft, I want to make a pillow out of it. If the pillow wouldn't get really smelly and stinky after awhile. And don't you love smashing garlic with the back of a knife? Talk about a good way to get out your aggression! These were the things I was thinking about today when I whipped up a batch of basil. I had planned on actually using the basil for something tonight, but since I still can't really taste anything, I hate to waste another yummy-sounding new recipe when I can't even tell what I'm eating. I didn't want my basil to go bad, so I made the pesto I'll need for the recipe when I can finally make it. This way I can just stick it in the freezer and have it when I need it. Jen B. made pesto last week I think it was, and I was going to use her recipe, but I wanted to find one with a little less oil so it would be a little lower in fat...even though olive oil is a good fat. So, I went to my trusty "need to find a recipe" website, RecipeZaar.com, and found one that sounded easy and had great reviews.

Pesto
Recipe #49909

2 cups packed basil leaves
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts, cooled
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 cloves crushed garlic
1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil, depending on how creamy you want it

Put first four ingredients into food processor. Pulse to blend. Slowly add oil through feed tube to make a nice paste.

*****

I've decided I need a bigger food processor. I think mine is a seven cup, and it was just barely the right size for this. I'd like one I could do dough in, although I don't have a need for that very often. So probably in reality I'm fine with the food processor I have. I just had to stop every now and then and push everything down towards the blades so all the basil leaves would get chopped up. I'm not sure how much oil I ended up adding, I just streamed it in without measuring. I really don't like to measure things I've decided--so I guess it's good I like cooking more than baking.