Monday, January 18, 2010

Mondayitis Cooking - make your own pesto for a 20 minute dinner



Now my bestie is a great cook, she's just time-poor and after looking after her three kids, her home business and having a shift-working husband dinner comes around and she likes something quick and easy.  On the weekend when I was out farmgating, they had huge bunches of basil (with at least 100 leaves on each bunch) for just ONE DOLLAR.  So I picked up some extra pine-nuts and went to work to make both of us some quick fix meal kits.

Made them in literally 15 minutes.  I made 2 batches, and had everything in the freezer and dishes washed in 40 minutes.

What you'll need:
3 standard bunches of basil (say 100 leaves - about 3 packed cups)
100 grams pinenuts
3 cloves of garlic
3/4 cup fresh grated parmesan
1/3 cup olive oil
small ziplock bags depending on how many you're feeding!

What to do:
Pull all leaves off bushes - leaving stems.  Place leaves in food processor and pulse a couple of times. 
Add garlic, parmesan and pinenuts, pulse in processor until it looks a little on the saucy-side.


Put processor on medium speed, and slowly trickle in olive oil whilst processing, this will cause the mix to expand a little.


Place in 1/4 cup measures into ziplock bags and squeeze as much air out as possible.
 (this will feed 5-6 people with 4 cups of uncooked pasta)


Freeze.



Will easily defrost in about 1.5 hours or even heat frozen in saucepan when you want pesto in a hurry, add sundried tomatoes at cooking time if you wish!

5 comments:

Jade on January 18, 2010 6:16 AM said...

Brilliant! I love pesto and always wondered if you could freeze the sauce if you made it home made. Will give it a try next weekend!

Chantelle {fat mum slim} on January 18, 2010 6:25 AM said...

Oh yum. I'm crazy about pesto. xx

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella on January 18, 2010 12:15 PM said...

I'm a pesto nut too and yes as you say, it's a lifesaver when it comes to a quick dinner :) I sometimes make it with macadamias which give it a slightly different flavour!

schwester said...

cashews are great, too :)

emmaO on January 25, 2010 10:55 AM said...

We have basil going crazy in our veggie garden so I made pesto last week, but used cashews as they are cheaper to buy! Tasted yummo.. though yours looks smoother than mine Liss. Yum!
em


Related Posts with Thumbnails
 

Frills in the Hills Copyright © 2009 2010