Homemade Pesto

Today we are going out to dinner to send off our longtime friends to their retirement in North Carolina. We’ve known Roger and Carole since married housing in Michigan State. Their daughter and most importantly their grandson live in North Carolina and thus the whole family is returning to their roots.


But I have lots of basil leaves in my garden so I made the Barefoot Contessa’s pesto
Ingredients:
¼ C walnuts
¼ C pignolis (pine nuts)
3 T chopped garlic (9 cloves)
5 C fresh basil leaves, packed
1t salt
1 t black pepper
1 ½ C EVOO
1 C grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Place the walnuts, pine nuts and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process for 30 seconds. Add the basil leaves, salt and pepper. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube and process until the pesto is finely pureed. Add the Parmesan and puree for a minute.
Serve, or store the pesto in the refrigerator or freezer with a thin film of olive oil on top.