April 4, 2008

Basil Pesto

Having an abundant supply of fresh basil (both from my backyard and my in-laws), it would be really wasteful to not use them in my cooking.

I found a write-up on the use of basil in one of Donna Hay Magazine. Basil pesto caught my eye. Yummy Mummy cooked my first basil pesto chicken pasta. I think I had tried making it for my family after I realised how easy it is to cook it. However I had then bought the pesto from Cold Storage, which was not cheap. I suppose it is the pine nuts that makes it expensive.

2 weeks ago, I attempted to make my own basil pesto. I had then store it in a glass jar in the fridge. Only last night did I managed to cook it into pasta with chicken and served it as dinner for me and hubby. The result? Yummy home-made basil pesto chicken pasta!



Basil Pesto
1 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tbsp chopped toasted pine nuts (The cheapest I found in Coles were Sunbeam 80g for about $3.70)
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp lemon zest
3/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Put everything into food processor and process until fully blended and fine. You may store them in a glass jar and put it in the fridge for future use. The portion is enough for about 2 servings of basil pesto chicken pasta.

*I has used Parmesan cheese powder instead of grating the cheese. And I didn't use lemon in this first attempt.
*Note: basil pesto is best served with any ribbon pasta. I had used fettucini.

Cook pasta as usual in boiling water. Cook chicken meat (breast or thigh meat) with olive oil and basil pesto. You can either stir in cooked pasta into sauce or pour the sauce over cooked pasta.

Go try it! :)

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