• 1 cup firmly packed and dried basil (about 1 oz or 30 gm). The fresher your basil the less it will tend to discolor to a dark unappetizing shade of olive.
• salt
• 3 tbsp freshly grated parmesan
• 2 tbsp freshly grated romano (or skip and go with 5 tbsp parmesan total)
• 3 tbsp pine nuts (~26 gm, slightly less than 1 oz). Walnuts work well too. Toasting the nuts adds a bit of depth to the flavors.
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup extra virg olive oil

  ---

• 1 1/2 pasta

Blend basil, salt (about 1/2 tsp salt)  process a few secs til chopped.  Add cheese, pine nuts, garlic, & oil.  Process til smooth, leave in blender.

Cook pasta til al dente. Add 1 Tbsp pasta water, process just to blend.  Combine, and serve.

Note: it took about 20 minutes to wash and de-leaf the basil onto a paper towel.  Dried the leaves in colander on the floor in front of the fan for an hour or so.

The plain pesto freezes well (no pasta water). I freeze it in 1 cup disposable tupperwares and put a piece of plastic wrap touching the surface of the pesto before freezing to help limit discoloration. I've also experimented w/ adding a few drops of lemon juice to prevent discoloration but don't have enough data on this method to say if it works.
 
 

First made ~June 1999, Recipe from Carol