Source: Unknown
Servings: 6-8 people
Entered by: Charlene Stapleton
Vegetarian Vegan

What in the world is Pesto! Pesto has been a mainstay in Italian recipes for generations. Pesto is a green paste consisting of mainly basil, parsley, garlic, a cheese, pine nuts and olive oil.
Use Pesto on hot buttered pasta, make tomato bruschetta.
A simple salad recipe for pesto is place a bed of lettuce on individual salad plates, place a large slice tomato, top with a dollop of pesto, top pesto with a generous helping of crumbled cheese and chopped green onions.

I usually put sunflower seeds in our pesto instead of pine nuts. Sunflower seeds are not as expensive, easy to find,have a good shelf life and adds a salty nutty flavor to the pesto.

I make several batches of pesto each each year omitting the nuts and cheese. I place the pesto in ice cube trays until frozen. I then remove the frozen cubes and place in a zip lock freezer bag. These cubes can be added to your soups stews,tomato sauces. You can use your imagination.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 cups Fresh sweet basil leaves
  • 1/2 cup cup Fresh parsley
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts, walnuts or sunflower seeds
  • 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
  • 2 to 3 cloves garlic

Instructions

  1. 1
    Puree all of the above ingredients except the olive oil. Add the olive oil a little at a time and keep blending to get a medium to thin paste consistency. Serve at room temperature tossed over hot buttered noodles or pasta.
  2. 2
    You can store Pesto in closed containers in the Refrigerator for no longer than 2 weeks. or freeze up to 3 to 4 months.

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