Pesto Three Ways: Part One

One of my Summer goals for the next few months is to try as many different summery recipes as possible. When I wrote up my list, there were a few things that I just had to include...to me Summer tastes like watermelon, like tomato & mozzarella salad, like PESTO. 

I thought it might be fun over the next few months to try a few different pesto recipes. We've been making our own pesto for several years now, and I thought it would be a good time to expand our knowledge and try it with some new ingredients. I'll report back here with what we try each time, but to start it off, I thought I would share how we make our basic basil pesto. It's great with spaghetti of course, but can also be mixed with butter for a spread, or with oil & vinegar to make a salad dressing. 

So here's what you'll need:

 2 garlic cloves (minced) 
 1/2 cup pine nuts (toasted)
 1/2 tsp salt
 3-4 (large) handfuls basil leaves
 1 cup olive oil
 1 cup grated parmesan cheese 

Now just blend up all your ingredients, starting with the garlic, nuts, salt and oil, and then adding the cheese in at the end. Feel free to mix up the amounts or add black pepper to get the taste right for you.  

If you want to eat your pesto with pasta, all that's left is to cook up the noodles and then toss them with the pesto.

To make a spread (for breads and such) I add 1 part Pesto to 3 parts butter. 

To make a vinaigrette (to use as salad dressing) I add about 5 tbsp of Pesto to 1/2 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup wine vinegar. This is also really yummy drizzled over tomato and mozzarella. Tastes like summer :)

I'm excited to try a few new pesto recipes and share my thoughts here in the coming months!