Walnut Pesto

This recipe for pesto is fairly basic - nothing fancy here. Of course, that's the trick; prepare a really easy, basic dish that tastes like you slaved over it for hours, not minutes. The original comes from The Joy of Cooking, with only a few little tweaks. Avi suggested I use walnuts (I hate pine nuts), and I use the fresh basil from our garden, which is particularly yummy, but of course store-bought would be fine.

Ingredients:

2 cups densely packed basil leaves (about 3 good girl-sized handfulls)
1/3 cup walnuts (smallest bag size at grocery store)
2 cloves garlic
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (NOT the stuff in the can! Buy a wedge and grate it!)
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine the basil, walnuts, garlic and cheese in your food processor and process thoroughly. Through the feed tube, pour in the olive oil slowly as the machine runs. This can be pretty messy, and you may need to add more oil to get the right consistency, depending on just how densely you packed your basil into those two cups. Add the salt and pepper to taste (I use a fair bit of pepper). Cover immediately with saran wrap to keep it from turning brown, and refrigerate until serving.

See? Quick and easy. I like to cook some fettuccine and pan fry some chicken breasts seasoned with salt and pepper (and maybe dusted with a little grated Parmesan) to accompany my pesto, but you can serve it just about any way you like.

And the best part? Leftovers make an awesome lunch with a small loaf of crusty bread.