Friday, April 23, 2010

Basil-Spinach Pesto

Last week I had my grandparents over for dinner. At first, I was dreading it because my family is a little bit crazy (isn't everyone's though?) but it ended up being really great! It was the first time they were able to see my new place after moving in December. I made some really great things for dinner and I want to share a few of my recipes. Here is the recipe for the pesto I made!

Ingredients:
1 cup Fresh Basil
1 cup Fresh Spinach
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2-3 Garlic cloves
a few pinches of Salt
1/4 cup Slivered Almonds

Tip: You can also add some Romano Parmesan cheese but I didn't with this particular batch.



If you have a food processor great! If not, just use a blender, it works just as well.
This recipe is great because all you have to do is throw all of the ingredients in and blend. I have a mini food processor so I tried to do it in parts in order to prevent the blade from getting too clogged up with the basil/spinach.




I'll be honest, when I do recipes like this I usually end up improvising on the portions, if you want it a little more creamy you can add more almonds, if you want more of a basil flavor you can ditch the spinach and just do basil. I probably ended up using a little more olive oil and garlic in mine.



The pesto came out really well and unfortunately I don't have pictures of the dish I used it in. I ended up cooking some orzo and steaming baby asparagus spears to go with it. Cover the orzo with the pesto and toss the baby asparagus into it or just lay it on top for a nice presentation. Or you can use it on raviolis or any other type of pasta or even spread it on a sandwich. Enjoy!

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