Pesto Change-o

If someone asked me to choose my favourite flavour, I would have to think about it for awhile.

Of course there's chocolate, everyone loves that. But I don't think it's my favourite because there are so many flavours I would choose to eat over chocolate; cheese, roast chicken, vanilla, peanut butter, cherries, lemon. I think I could continue listing things forever, but I'll finish up with one of my true favourites - basil.

I love basil and I can easily choose it as my favourite herb flavour. It can go with both savoury treats like tomatoes and chicken, or sweet treats like strawberries.

But today, it's going with walnuts and Parmesan cheese.

You guessed it. I'll going to flip the switch on my magic wand (my food processor) and turn basil into my favourite version of pesto.

Walnut Pesto - makes about 4 cups

1/2 cup walnuts
9 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
5 cups of fresh basil
1 teaspoon each of salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups quality olive oil
1 cup fresh Parmesan cheese, grated

1. Place the walnuts and garlic cloves in a food processor and pulse for about 15 seconds.

2. Add the basil, salt, and pepper and slowly pour the olive oil into the food processor while continue to pulse until pesto is at your desired consistency, about 2 minutes.

3. Add the Parmesan cheese, pulse for another minute, and pesto change-o, you've made Walnut Pesto!

You can use your pesto right away or do what I do and freeze most of it for week night meals.

I like to reserve a small container to use for tonight's dinner and then pour the rest into an ice cube tray.

Just press a piece of cling wrap into each square and freeze away!

When the pesto is frozen through, just remove the cling wrap, pop the cubes out of the tray, and store in a large container for easy dinners.

All you have to do now is cook some pasta, drain it, toss a few cubes of Walnut Pesto into a bowl with the hot pasta and some fresh tomatoes, and enjoy!