Quick and Easy Pesto

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil - any kind you want. (Pilippo Berio is cheap and great for cooking)
1/2 cup pinenuts
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
one package of fresh basil (or about two nice handfuls)
1/2 cup of shredded Parmesean
10-20 grinds of black pepper (depends how much you like pepper)
about 5 grinds of salt or a few pinches

Step 1:

Measure out 1/2 cup of oil. You're only going to use a 1/4 cup or so to start.

Step 2:

De-stem the basil. I don't know if this is necessary, but I like to take out just the big stems. It smells really fresh and healthy!

Step 3:

Now, add everything: the 1/2 cup parmesean, 1/2 cup pinenuts, juice of lemon, basil, salt, pepper, and then pour over 1/4 or a little more of the oil. Add the oil last so it weighs down the basil into the mixing blade. (sorry for the blurry photo)

Step 4:

It should look like this when it's finished. Notice overall it's pretty smooth, but when you spoon it up it's got a lot of texture. That's how it should be.

You can put this over pasta with sliced roma tomatoes and feta cheese, or you can just go with pasta. You will be surprised how awesome this tastes for how easy it was to make. It's also great on garlic toast! Top it with some melted parmesean, too!