Making a pesto is a dead easy, but a goodie blender is required. I a like to use pesto as a sauce with pasta to give it real mmmmm flavour, but it can be dolloped on baked spuds or used as a spread on crackers or toast.
The basic ingredients for an my favourite pesto is: basil, olive oil, grated parmesan cheese (or any other of zee hard cheesees), pine nuts (or any other nut like walnut), garlic, and salt and ground black pepper to taste.
The quantities are:
2 cups basil leaves
1/2 cup Parmesan
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts (or other nut)
3 garlic cloves, minced
Quantities can be varied to taste. To make it more mild, replace half of the basil with baby spinach leaves, or rocket.
This is what you need to do.
Chuck the basil leaves and nuts into a food processor and pulse several times. Add the garlic and cheese and pulse several times again. Scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula.
With the food processor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Scrape it down from the sides as necessary. Stir in salt and ground black pepper.
Easy. Perfecto!