Pesto Ingredients

This is an adaptation of a Barefoot Contessa recipe — she is just the best. Here’s the original recipe: Ina Garten’s Easy Basic Pesto. My changes were to use hard goat cheese (Cablanca) in lieu of parmesan and to use all walnuts, no pine nuts. You would think there would be pine nuts when you make a run to a grocery store in New Mexico. You would think.

BasilThese basil leaves were about the size of my hand – biggest I’ve ever seen. The pesto turned out pretty spicy and I’m wondering if the basil was too mature. It came in big plastic packages about 3x bigger than your usual grocery store herbs. Wish I could say it was homegrown, but this year’s crop wouldn’t have yielded 5 cups of leaves packed.

Basil, Nuts, Garlic

Here’s the part where the garlic, nuts, and basil come together. When you add the oil, it really starts to blend.

Pesto Blended

It may look like pond scum in your food processor, but it is delicious.

Pesto Containers

The recipe in the link above gives tips for storing this stuff. Paraphrased, air is the enemy of pesto. Refrigerate it, freeze it, but PLEASE, keep it away from air. Use plastic wrap to cover the surface if you’re using little plastic freezer thingies like I did.

Pesto SnackGreat snack, especially with a glass of red. Warm corn tortilla, pesto, chevre. Yes, please.

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