Home Made Pesto!

Deeeelicious! Pesto is one of my favorite sauces ever. It's versatile (it can be used on pasta or sandwiches both) and it adds a pretty color to monotonous-looking food and it's super easy to make! As an Italian, I really should be putting cheese in it... but since I am allergic to renin, I leave it out. And it's still delicious!

Fresh basil can be expensive to buy... especially since lots of it is needed to make a batch of this sauce. I have found organic basil bunches at Sheridan's in inner SE Portland as well as at Trader Joe's, that is super affordable, so look these for plenty of basil!

• For this batch, good for two people to use three times, I used 4 regular bunches of the herb.
• One and a half cups of natural pine nuts (also found at Trader Joe's for a great price).
• Yummy, high quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil (enough to make a paste).
• Pinch of salt.

Put leaves in blender (not stems, just leaves).
Pour in a little bit of oil (maybe a cup? You can always add more as you see fit, so don't pour much in there at first).
Add the pine nuts all at once as well as the pinch of salt.
Blend together and keep adding a little bit of oil as you go.
Stop the blending here and there to move the leaves down to the blades (they tend to stick to the side).

Everyone has seen pesto in it's final form, so blend until you see the correct consistency. Just keep in mind that it should not be runny :)

The pine nuts will get chopped too, but no tall of them. That's the nature of my semi-professional blender, but that's totally ok! I LOVE biting into the nuts here and there.

YUM!