Pesto Sauce

Wow, it's been a while since the Piglets have posted a recipe.  It's just so difficult with so many food trucks up and running for the summer months and the opening of the Summer Night Market but no excuses!  Here's a quickie recipe for some pesto sauce that I L-O-V-E.  It makes a nice 16 servings (1 1/2 cups of pesto) so you can make it fresh, use it up or freeze in small batches to use at a later time.  I've also added a simple recipe of mozzarella and tomatoes at the bottom just to get your creative/culinary juices running.  I know it's easier to just buy pesto but this is just as super quick and you know exactly what's going into your sauce.  Also, this is the time of year when you can get basil on the cheap side (so stock up folks!) so making pesto can also be super affordable.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of fresh basil leaves, stems removed
• 1 1/2 cups of walnuts, pine nuts or pecans (I've used all three and they've all worked really well although pine nuts gave the best flavor, using walnuts is just so much cheaper and also produces a comparable pesto.  I used pecans here because it's what I had in my pantry.)
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and just mashed a bit with your knife
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Take all of the ingredients except the olive oil and place it in a food processor.  Blend.  Add olive oil slowly into the mixture as it's blending.  Stir in salt and pepper to your taste.
2. Eat and enjoy!

Note: store your pesto in an airtight container or freeze right away if you're doing so - the longer you leave it out, the more it oxidizes and darkens 


Here's a simple salad I made with the pesto and some tomatoes and soft/fresh mozzarella...  DELISH!