Genoa Basil Pesto

A couple of weeks ago I was given the gift of a grocery bag full of garden-grown basil and I knew I was going to make homemade pesto which I had been craving for months. The plan was to freeze most of it so that I could get a blast of summer basil flavor in the middle of winter. There was so much basil that I ended up making a double batch. Since I didn't have enough pine nuts for two batches the second batch was supplemented (by half) with walnuts to make up the difference. I had just seen that on a food show, probably food network, and it turned out great. The following is a recipe for one batch.

Homemade Basil Pesto

1 cup of extra virgin olive oil

1 cup of pine nuts

1/2 cup of parmesan reggiano

1/2 cup of pecorino romano

4 cloves of garlic

4 to 5 cups of basil leaves

1) Place all of the ingredients in a blender (in the order listed)

2) Blend the ingredients until a smooth consistency is reached and resembles a firm paste adding extra basil leaves by the handful if needed.

Note-to-self #3 - Do not leave blender running too long, otherwise you will melt plastic/rubber gears and then you will have to find an appliance repair place like me. Sigh. Maybe the problem was making two batches in a row.