Last week I harvested a bunch of basil from my two backyard basil plants to make pesto. Since I did not have quite enough I used some store-bought Italian parsley to supplement the basil. I used this recipe from the Cookie and Kate website. https://cookieandkate.com/how-to-make-basil-pesto/#tasty-recipes-24855-jump-target

I did not add the lemon juice and I tried to scrimp a little on the oil by adding an ounce of water. You just put all the ingredients in a blender and let it rip. Be sure your oil gets all the way down to the bottom of the blender before you turn it on. It made about 1 3/4 cups of pesto. I bought a 1/4 cup ice cube tray and froze all but one portion and then transferred the individual cubes into a zip-lock bag after the cubes were set. The 1/4 cup I left in the refrigerator was used in tonight’s dinner. We cooked 8 ounces of penne and the 1/4 cup of pesto and 1/2 cup of pasta water were all that I needed for the sauce.

We started our dinner with a tossed salad with green leaf lettuce, kale, cherry tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, and pepperoncini. The salad was dressed with Skinny Girl ranch dressing. We ate fairly lightly the rest of the day so we could enjoy and extra ounce of pasta tonight. I am so glad I have 6 other pesto meals waiting in the freezer!