Homemade Pesto!

In my wee little garden I planted some basil. I planted this basil for the sole purpose of making pesto! :O) In the past I have purchased pre-made pesto from the grocery store and while it is very good...it is also kind of expensive. Making this was so easy...here's how.

Ingredients:

4 cups of fresh basil

3-4 garlic cloves

1/4 cup walnuts

3 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

salt and pepper (to taste)

lemon juice

Step 1:

Combine walnuts and garlic in food processor. Pulse until ground together...but not too much, you don't want walnut dust. 

Step 2: 

Add basil a little at a time and pulse. Do this until all of your basil is incorporated and it is a thick paste. It should look like this:

Step 3:
Slowly pour the 3 tablespoons of olive oil into the food processor while hitting the pulse button until the thick paste becomes smooth. I actually added a little more after 3 tablespoons because I thought it was still "chunky" and not as smooth as I'd like. 

Step 4: 

Add in the parmesan cheese...and pulse away again.

Tada

Step 5:
Put pesto into an ice cube tray, cover each cube with a thin layer of olive oil, and put it in the freezer.   

I can't wait to try some on some pasta. Being that I froze it, all I have to do is pop one or two out and throw it on some hot pasta. YUM :O)

**The quality of the pictures is not up to par...but the camera decided to go on the fritz tonight, and so these pictures were taken from the iPad...which surprisingly takes awful, grainy pictures.