A good friend gave me a beautiful bouquet of fresh basil from her garden.
I find my salad spinner to be the best tool for washing fresh herbs.
Once the basil is clean and dry it goes into the food processor:
2 cups of packed basil leaves
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup pine nuts
and pulse until leaves are finely chopped. With food processor running on low add in a slow, steady stream:
1/2 cup good olive oil
Add salt and pepper to taste.
If you’re going to use immediately stir in:
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
I froze mine using a silicone ice cube tray. Cover tightly before putting in the freezer. I will add my Parmesan when I’m ready to use the pesto.
Now all we need is some pasta.
Once your pesto is frozen, transfer the frozen cubes individually to zip lock bags, return to the freezer and you have instant pesto for any recipe. The individual cubes thaw quickly. I enjoy these all winter!