Basil Pesto

As you saw in my Quick Pics, my favorite sauce for pasta is basil pesto. Mainly because, with absolutely no cream, and the positives of olive oil's healthy fats, I tell myself eating a giant bowl of pasta is healthy. Translation--pesto makes me lie to myself. Well that may be a loose translation (kind of like my attempting to translate what my office's Spanish cleaning lady mutters about me--by the by, I dont speak a lick of Spanish), but I'm fairly certain that's what I just said.


Well, now that my health food kick is sufficiently underway, a bowl of pasta sounds pretty good! Except...I don't really want it. Shocking, I know. After weeks of not eating starches (ok, I eat SOME, I'm not a martyr), I just don't really want a big bowl of them. But what about my love for pesto? I determined I would start using pesto as a topping for some of my favorite proteins. Enter...salmon and pork chops. It was, to be honest, a bit more successful on the salmon, but both were absolutely delicious!


Basil pesto

Ingredients:

2 cups of fresh basil leaves
3 cloves of garlic
Cup of extra virgin olive oil (use your eye to when it's the perfect amount for the amount of basil you use)
1/2 cup greated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino
Salt and pepper


Directions:


1. Combine the basil and garlic in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add oil slowly through the top of the processor and incorporate. Stop adding oil when the pesto reaches the texture you prefer (I like mine a bit oily, so use less if you don't!) Season with salt and pepper.


That's it! One direction! How easy is that. Pesto freezes very well too--I like to put pesto in snack size bags in individual portions so I can pull it out and use when I'm feeling lazy. So it's good to make a ton! And now, I'm using it on all kinds of things, including the salmon above and the pork below.