One, Two, Three, Pesto!

I have a vision of the future, and it looks like this:

I arrive home after a long day of even longer feeling classes. I am weak and in desperate need of food. Every fiber of my being wants to pop in a microwavable meal and call it a day. However, a voice inside me (one might say my suborn voice) whispers "do not fail, you must cook." So I wearily trod to the kitchen and survey my surroundings, what shall be for dinner? Two days ago I would have been lost, but now I know the answer...pesto!

Although my cooking quest does not start for another few days. I decided to give the kitchen a test run. I've always wanted to make pesto from scratch and as there is not time like the present; I trotted to my local grocery store. I will admit that I hit a minor speed bump when I saw the price of pine nuts. $29 a pound! We're not talking gold here! But I digress. I decided that since it was my inaugural dish after all, I would splurge. I brought about a third of a pound for $11. Still quite steep, but at least I would have enough to make pesto three times. I returned to my apartment, took out my blender and went to work. And boy was it easy. Pesto takes about five minutes to make!


Classic Pesto (Adapted from the Joy of Cooking Cookbook)

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups of Fresh Basil

1/3 cup of pine nuts

2 Medium cloves of garlic peeled

1/2 cup of Grape seed oil (Olive Oil works too)

1/2 cup of Grated parmesan Cheese and a bit extra to put on top of your pasta at end (you can never have enough cheese)

Pepper and salt to taste


Steps

1. Place all ingredients into a a blender and blend at high speed

2. Pour sauce over pasta

It's that easy! Another great thing about pesto is that there are multiple variations. All you really need is some sort of seed or nut, and some herbs. Which means that when I run out of pine nuts, I can buy walnuts or pistachios (much more economical). This is important because I have a feeling there will be much pesto coming out of my kitchen. A meal in ten minutes! It will save me on the days when cooking is the last thing I want to do.