First Summer Pesto!

Now that I'm caught up on life, it's time to get caught up on posts! Our garden is doing so well (even though we abandoned it for two long weekends in a row). We finally had some time on Friday to make our first batch of summer pesto.

Before MW, I had never had pesto. Pesto originates from Genoa in Northern Italy and MW, having an Italian family, grew up with homemade pesto with tortellini. I was leery of eating a green sauce when he first introduced me, but after my first bite I was in love. It is so savory and full of flavor that you need only to coat your pasta with it. We actually started our summer garden for the purpose of making homemade pesto, and of course it has exploded since then. Basil is still the most abundant plant in our garden and this year we plan to crank out several batches of pesto (perhaps to get us through the winter?). This is one of my favorite easy to make meals when paired with a package of fresh tortellini.

What You'll Need:
food processor
3 cups sweet basil (packed)
3/4 cup parsley (packed)
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2- 3/4 cup grating cheese (we use the larger amount with pecorino romano)
4 cloves of garlic
~3/4 cup olive oil

1. Chop the washed basil and parsley in a food processor

2. Add pine nuts, garlic, and cheese, chopping/blending between each addition until it is all blended well.

3. Slowly drizzle in olive oil until desired consistency is reached.

4. Freeze or use fresh! This will make about 4 servings, where each serving is enough to lightly coat a 1lb package of fresh tortellini (we usually use the Buitoni whole wheat cheese tortellini).

Last night, I was lucky enough to have an MW creation complete with sauteed shrimp, pepper bacon, garlic, onions, sun-dried tomatoes 

All on a delicious bed of homemade pesto and tortellini. Because we added extras, we only used a 9oz. package of tortellini and nearly used a full jar of pesto to coat everything. It was mind-blowing.