How to make Pesto

Well, today has been a never-ending day, but what else is new. Have you ever just had one of those days that you just want to sit on the floor and throw a tantrum like a 3 year old? Perhaps not... but that was my day. I am so over school and I have to make it to December! Yuck. I suppose on the bright side is that I got an A+ on my History test. I did not see that one coming. As far as my schedule for tonight, it won't be pretty. I have most of the last paragraph for my partner speech finished, but I still have to find negatives about buses for the environment. Yay... Also I have to do this book writing assignment (she changed the due date to make it due the same day as our "revised" project proposals) and Revise my project proposal (because she clearly couldn't tell us what structure we needed to use before we wrote and turned in the project proposals that she basically didn't read... hmph). So yea, fun times in my world. Once Tuesday is over, I will be much more sane... well, who am I kidding... I'm a college student and I don't think we could ever be perfectly sane, although I could be wrong...

Anyway, now that I feel a little bit better, let's move on to the recipe of the day: Pesto! No, not Presto! It's Pesto! Hehe. I made 2 different types over fall break: Basil and Spinach, Arugula, and Basil pesto. Num num num. This recipe needs to be here today because it plays an important role in my pasta recipe that is coming soon! So yea... I'll let you actually see the recipe now!

Basil Pesto (as found on Simply Recipes)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed (or 1 cup arugula/spinach, 1 Basil... or you could just do an arugula and spinach pesto if you wanted to...)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (do not use the stuff in the green shaker container. Do not!)
• 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts 
• 1/2 cup Olive oil
• 3 medium sized garlic cloves (or to taste)
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. If you are using walnuts, pulse them a few times. If you aren't, add in the pine nuts and the leaves (for whatever you are using) or put in the walnuts and leaves.
2. Pulse a few times in the food processor. Add the garlic and pulse a few more times.
3. Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the processor is on (or you can just add the olive oil and parmesan cheese in at the same time like I did because we don't have a feed tube for the food processor). 
4. Add the Parmesan cheese and pulse a few more times. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve and enjoy!

Yield: 1 cup

Pretty simple to make, all in all, just takes a few minutes to prep the ingredients and then put them into the food processor. I hope you all enjoy and that your Monday went swimmingly!

Oh! I almost forgot... since I had to grate so much Parmesan cheese by hand, I had to do it in segments. When I was finally done, I felt like singing "Ding dong the witch is dead" except like "Ding dong Parmesan wedge is dead" or something like that. Random, I know... but yea. "Just keep grating, just keep grating, just keep grating grating grating, what do we do? We grate Parmesan..."

As always...

Bon appétit!