Homemade Pesto

I love pesto. You can have them with bread, pasta, make them as pizza base, lots of ways to serve pesto.

But my favourite is probably to make bruschetta or have them with bread. And the exciting thing with pesto is you can make different varieties of them. You can make them with almond, walnut, pine nuts, etc. You can even choose the herbs you want. I usually use parsley and basil. But I know some people have made them with coriander, mint, etc. I think that's the most exciting thing about cooking, you can do whatever you want sometimes as long as it suits your tastebuds. Think out of the box and explore your creativity.

I made these quite often for dinner parties at home. It's pretty easy as long as you have food processor. I made these for Christmas Eve dinner. Basically it's just spreading the pesto on a piece of bread and a slice of tomato on top. You can certainly add some bocconcini or other types of cheese as well.


Homemade Pesto

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 2 cups basil, leaves only loosely packed
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 100grams pine nuts, lightly toasted
• 1/2 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons red wine or white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar, more if you have sweet tooth =)
• pinch of salt and black pepper
  

Toppings:

• Tomatoes- sliced to 2-3mm thickness
  
• Baguette, slice diagonally around 1/2cm thick.
  

Methods:

1. Put all the ingredients in your food processor.


2. Process all the ingredients but make sure you don't blitz them too finely. It's nicer to have a bit of crunch.


3. Season and taste your pesto. Add sugar if it's not sweet enough, add a bit more vinegar if it's not sour enough, add a bit of salt if it's not salty enough, add....I'll stop, well I guess you get my point. ;)


4. Butter one side of the baguette. Toast in oven 200 degrees celcius until the tops are browned and crunchy


5. Spread the pesto on a slice of bread, top with tomatoes and serve
   

Tips:

• You can chop up some extra basil and put on top of the tomato or even add a whole basil leaf.
• It's great to serve with pasta or grilled salmon too.
  
  

Happy New Year everyone. Hope you have a good celebration