Pesto Recipe

Why does this always happen? At 2:00AM I have a wave of genius and come up with something great to write about but by morning I'm not nearly as articulate. I may even still have the idea, but it's not flowing out of me the way I expected it to. That happened to me today and so I'm posting a recipe instead.

This is my recipe for pesto pasta. My entire family loves it. Even my finicky little girls. My parents rave about it, friends always love it, so I hope you love it too.


Pesto Pasta

Note: Quality ingredients are the key to this recipe. Do not substitute for cheaper ingredients! It will not be the same! p.s. Trader Joe's has all of these ingredients at good prices! :-)

1lb. of the pasta of your choice---(pesto makes a good cover for that healthy whole grain pasta---no one can tell!)
approx. 4 ozs of fresh basil
½ cup of toasted pine nuts (pignolias)
2 cloves of finely chopped fresh garlic
1 cup of grated parmigiano-reggiano -- (if the hunk doesn’t cost at least $10 at a regular store, then it ain’t the good stuff!)
dash of salt
2/3 cup of premium extra virgin olive oil

Boil water for pasta. De-stem, wash, and dry basil. While pasta cooks, add basil, pine nuts, garlic, grated parmesan, and dash of salt to a food processor and blend. Slowly add olive oil until all ingredients are nicely mixed. Drain pasta (do not add oil) and immediately combine pesto to the pasta. Serve with extra parmesan, pine nuts, chopped garden-fresh tomatoes, freshly ground pepper, and kalamata olives (or anything else you feel like!), and of course, a bottle of very crisp, very cold Pinot Grigio!

Thanks to Lucky Candice (http://www.luckycandice.blogspot.com/) who says she actually appreciates recipes! (it's not just a cop-out when we have nothing else to write about!)