pesto.

or perhaps the slaughter of the basil plant?

ok for serious, i was going to post this last week but working and packing for wine fest got the better of my schedule. we had an amazing time with old friends, drank a plethora of wines and loved our spanking new and FREE camping chairs from freecycle. check those peeps out asap!

anyway, since we were going on vacation for almost a week i knew it was time to say a teary good-bye to my cute little basil plant that i have become so fond of over the past month. the best send off i could think of to honor this little lovie was to make her into some mean pesto.

now traditionally, pesto is a pretty fatty and indulgent sauce of sorts, so i decided to healthy it up by making some modifications.

first i gathered my non-basil ingredients:


so in your mini food prep add:
all the leaves on the basil plant, probably was 3/4 cup
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/8 cup ground almonds
1/8 cup grated parmesan
squeeze lemon juice, maybe a tablespoon or so.. (sorry not pictured)

consistency should resemble this:

now, mind you this is NOT a traditional pesto in many senses. as you have read it's not a 1/2 cup olive oil, and most pestos don't have white wine vinegar, but i really wanted to enjoy the taste of basil without all the guilt. so this is what some might call a semi-guiltless pesto. hey, you knew i would go there with the whole semi thing eventually right?

as i made the pesto i realized i needed a vehicle to actually eat said pesto. it would be rather wrong and well, glutonous to eat this right out of the mini prep with a spoon. it would right?

so i went all traditional and opted for pasta and some other yummies:

2 servings barilla plus spaghetti
1 package chunk light tuna
1 cup green beans

boil water, cook pasta about 8 minutes, add green beans to boiling water, cook another 5 minutes and drain.

mix all the pesto with the pasta, green beans and tuna for your aromatic result:

and maybe an extra bit of kosher salt and red pepper flake on top.....yummy.