Monday, January 18

Mondayitis Cooking - make your own pesto for a 20 minute dinner



Now my bestie is a great cook, she's just time-poor and after looking after her three kids, her home business and having a shift-working husband dinner comes around and she likes something quick and easy.  On the weekend when I was out farmgating, they had huge bunches of basil (with at least 100 leaves on each bunch) for just ONE DOLLAR.  So I picked up some extra pine-nuts and went to work to make both of us some quick fix meal kits.

Made them in literally 15 minutes.  I made 2 batches, and had everything in the freezer and dishes washed in 40 minutes.

What you'll need:
3 standard bunches of basil (say 100 leaves - about 3 packed cups)
100 grams pinenuts
3 cloves of garlic
3/4 cup fresh grated parmesan
1/3 cup olive oil
small ziplock bags depending on how many you're feeding!

What to do:
Pull all leaves off bushes - leaving stems.  Place leaves in food processor and pulse a couple of times. 
Add garlic, parmesan and pinenuts, pulse in processor until it looks a little on the saucy-side.


Put processor on medium speed, and slowly trickle in olive oil whilst processing, this will cause the mix to expand a little.


Place in 1/4 cup measures into ziplock bags and squeeze as much air out as possible.
 (this will feed 5-6 people with 4 cups of uncooked pasta)


Freeze.



Will easily defrost in about 1.5 hours or even heat frozen in saucepan when you want pesto in a hurry, add sundried tomatoes at cooking time if you wish!
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5 lovely comments:

Jade @ Earth to Jade on January 18, 2010 at 6:16 AM said... [Reply to this amazing comment]

Brilliant! I love pesto and always wondered if you could freeze the sauce if you made it home made. Will give it a try next weekend!

Chantelle {fat mum slim} on January 18, 2010 at 6:25 AM said... [Reply to this amazing comment]

Oh yum. I'm crazy about pesto. xx

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella on January 18, 2010 at 12:15 PM said... [Reply to this amazing comment]

I'm a pesto nut too and yes as you say, it's a lifesaver when it comes to a quick dinner :) I sometimes make it with macadamias which give it a slightly different flavour!

schwester said... [Reply to this amazing comment]

cashews are great, too :)

emmaO on January 25, 2010 at 10:55 AM said... [Reply to this amazing comment]

We have basil going crazy in our veggie garden so I made pesto last week, but used cashews as they are cheaper to buy! Tasted yummo.. though yours looks smoother than mine Liss. Yum!
em


 

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