There's a line from an Ingird Michaelson song that goes, "Let's get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance." While that is an admirable thought, I think I'd give out pesto instead.
I honestly hadn't even thought much about it yet this year until I saw that SouleMama was making some the other day. "Mmmmm!" said my tummy, so I picked up some basil and garlic at the farmer's market, some walnuts at the store, and some olive oil and salt from my cupboard.
You really do have to just mix-a-little, taste-a-little to get the proportions right, but as a starting point, I had about,
- 1/4 pound of basil (plus a handful of arugula that was hanging out in the fridge with nothing to do)
- half a small bottle of olive oil
- a whole bulb of garlic
- a cup of walnuts
- a good palmful of salt
Once everything is mixed together, you can pack it in jars and store it in the freezer. Be sure to get rid of the air bubbles--run a knife around the edge of the jar--as much as possible, as air will make the pesto turn brown. You can still eat it if it's a little brown, it's just not as pretty.
But what really puts the pesto over the top--as opposed to nice sweaters and dance lessons--is that it's actually super cheap. With the ingredients above, I made about seven four-ounce jars. Grand total per jar? $1.40--which even includes the price of the jar. Let's give everybody pesto, indeed--and a little more gnocchi in the world wouldn't hurt either!
