On Pesto

So I made pesto for the first time today, a process which was a lot easier than I'd thought. I have to say that pesto makes one of my all time favourite things - the bocca panini from the Indigo Cafe, a sandwich just perfectly warmed so the outside bread is crispy but if pulled open you can see the inside is a steaming, stringy heaven of bocconcini, tomato and, most importantly, pesto sauce. Aside from that, it makes cold pasta salads to die for, it's amazing to cook meat with, and you can of course just toss it around with some tomatoes and onions to make a great side dish.

I've been putting off making it for a while now though, since I remember making it years back when I stayed with my aunt and uncle and it seemed intimidating. Maybe it's just the recipe I found, but it took a grand total of maybe - maybe - ten minutes. I got it off this site, but just in case some day the hyperlink doesn't work, I'll break it down here for posterity's sake.

Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh packed basil leaves
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan
- 1/4 cup pine nuts (can be substituted with walnuts or hazelnuts)
- 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 Tbs lemon juice
- 3/4 cup olive oil, extra virgin

1. Pluck the basil leaves from the stems, removing any brown bits or mould.
2. Rinse in cold water and dry.
3. Mix oil, pine nuts and garlic in a food processor (or blender, which is what I use for lack of a food processor).
4. Add basil leaves, a bit at a time, until the mixture is a thickish green paste.
5. Add lemon juice.
6. Add parmesan if none of it's being frozen.

Makes about 1 cup pesto. The pesto can be frozen, but in that case the cheese should be added when it's ready to be used since cheese doesn't freeze all that well. The only thing with this recipe - and I don't know if this is normal or not, having never made this from scratch before - is that the oil separates very easily from the mixture. It might be that there's too much, or it might just be because oil doesn't like to play nice with the other ingredients in the mason jar and prefers to be a loner.

Also, I'm partial to cheese and saltiness, so I actually added more parmesan than 1/4 cup (actually 4 times that amount - initially by mistake, but it turned out rather delicious). Of course this is the kind of thing that can be tweaked over the years until an uber-special pesto epitome is reached and can be passed down to the next generation.