Making Pesto

The Quick Way

You can buy it in plastic containers at the supermarket, probably in the deli section. This is easy but expensive.

The Slower Way

Get beforehand:

a plastic tub like the ones used for the large size of yoghurt
one of the large bottles of basil you can buy for a buck at the market
an equally large bottle of oregano
and one of parsely
a plastic tub of grated romano or parmesan cheese from the deli section
an 8 oz bag of shelled walnuts (in the baking section of the supermarket), or a small plastic tub of pine nuts, more expensive but smoother texture.

Check to make sure you have a good head of garlic and that you're not out of olive oil.

Ingredients

2 T basil
2 T oregano
1/2 T parsley
1 cup of cheese
1 cup of nuts, ground
1 clove of garlic, crushed
'some' olive oil (start with 1/4 cup)

You can crush the garlic with the garlic press.

If you got pine nuts, you can mash them up either with a mortar and pestle or even by putting them on the cutting board and using a rolling pin to roll over them.

If you got walnuts, use the nut grinder (glass jar bottom, plastic cup top with metal teeth and small crank) to grind them up.

Dump the ingredients in order into the plastic tub. Stir them up good. If the mixture isn't very moist, or if it's most but gritty, add some more oil, one T at a time, until it has a fairly smooth consistency, but you don't want the stuff to be swimming in the oil.

Okay, now put it in the refrigerator where you can keep it for at least a couple of weeks, or cook some pasta and have some right away.

When you add the pesto to your pasta, you can also add:

chopped sun-dried tomatoes, which are expensive but real good
salt and pepper to taste.

As with all recipes, you can vary the amount of the ingredients if you want: more nuts? More cheese? Less basil? If you like the taste, then your recipe's good.

The Slowest Way

Get two packages of fresh basil and two of fresh oregano and a bundle of parsley (use 1/4 or even less of the parsely). Clean them, get rid of the stems, chop the leaves, and put them in in place of the dried ingredients above.

The fresh herbs are stronger, but have a better taste.