Pesto Time!!!

 Are you looking for something to do with all that basil in your garden?  Pesto is the perfect solution!  I use pesto for pizza sauce, pasta sauce, on chicken, you can pretty much put pesto on anything and it tastes great!  This pesto sauce also freezes well. 

Ingredients:
2 cups of fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 generous pinch of salt

3 tbls pine nuts
1/2 cup grated parmingiano-reggiano cheese
2 tbls grated romano cheese
3 tbls softened butter




Place the first 5 ingredients in a food processor or blender and process into a smooth paste.

Transfer the contents of the food processor to a bowl and stir in the cheese.  Once the cheese has been evenly distributed in the sauce, stir in the softened butter and mix well.  If you are using the pesto as a pasta sauce, add a tablespoon of the water that the pasta was cooked in to the pesto sauce when tossing the pasta with the sauce.  This will help the pesto coat the pasta.