I had only made pesto once before, and while it was yummy, I found it to be a bit bitter. So, here's the recipe we used. The recipe is actually for a pesto pasta salad (more on this later), so the pesto recipe below is going to include a few other ingredients that were added (and made it really really yummy!).
Pesto ingredients:
-1/4 cup walnuts
-1/4 cup pine nuts
-9 garlic cloves, chopped
-5 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
-1 tsp kosher salt
-1 tsp black pepper
-1 1/2 cups good olive oil (she always says good olive oil in her show)
-1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
-1 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
-3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
-1 1/4 cup good mayonnaise
In food processor, blend walnuts, pine nuts and garlic for 15 seconds. Add basil leaves, salt,
and pepper. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil into the mixture. Add the Parmesan and puree for a minute.
Here it is before adding the "extra" ingredients
(using 1 1/2 cups of pesto) Puree the pesto, spinach, and lemon juice. Add the mayo and puree. And that's it!
YUM! Nice and creamy and not at all bitter!
I actually found this recipe because I was looking for a pasta dish with pesto and peas, and came across this, and it had awesome reviews. So, using her recipe as a guideline, we made a hot pasta (hers was for room temperature/cold), and it turned out super yummy!
I don't remember exactly what we did with this recipe, but I do know two things for sure: I definitely used extra Parmesan, and I did not use as much mayonnaise as the recipe calls for. Oh, and I used extra garlic, because I always do. Anyway, it turned out really well, and I can't wait to make the pesto again!
