Since my basil is thriving right now (finally) I decided to use some of my herbs up and make some pesto.   I found a recipe by Rachel Ray but modified it a bit – mostly making a bigger batch!  It also only called for pine nuts, but I didn’t have enough so I added some walnuts into the fray.

Recipe:

2 cups cleaned basil leaves
4 oz – 2/3 cup nuts (I used pine nuts and walnuts), toasted
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
2/3 cup olive oil
1 cup parmesan romano cheese

To clean the basil, I put it in a bowl of water and allowed the dirt to go to the bottom.  Then I just take them off the top since they float.  Try to get water out of them by putting them in a towel to dry.  Meanwhile, toast the nuts in a dry pan over medium/medium high heat.  Make sure to move them around so they don’t burn.  Meanwhile…put sundried tomatoes in microwave safe dish with water covering them.  Microwave on high for 2 minutes, and then rinse with cold water.  I used a glass measuring cup, which I used again with putting the olive oil in and the garlic cloves.  Microwave on high for 40 seconds.  Put everything together in a blender and you get this, which is enough for two batches:

Cook up some noodles and you get this:

Enjoy!