I’m back! After days of non-existence I came back to life…

I’ve told you I was dyeing to try a new recipe but I have been soooooo busy that I hadn’t had time for doing any grocery shopping…my fridge is more empty than…mmm, I can’t come up with any comparative …bear me here! Anyways, my point is that I really had nothing to cook or play and experiment in the kitchen with! So I was all set to go straight to the grocery store, buy all the ingredients I needed, come back and spend the morning cooking, BUT…when I woke up this was the view outside my window…

and suddenly I had no desire to leave my apartment…and good thing I didnt go out cause soon after heavy rain started pouring down the sky…SAD!

However I wasn’t still totally willing to give up my Sunday morning cooking. I looked out to my little balcony and I noticed that my little basil plants had grown into big, huge bushes…

So I decided to collect some and make pesto!

Here is how you make pesto folks! Take notes!

Ingredients:

• Basil
• 6 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 package of pine nuts

First thing cut off the leaves from the plant

And wash each leaf careffully

Than place’ em to dry on a strainer

I generally place my basil leaves on the balcony under the sunlight, that helps reducing the drying time, but clearly today was not the right day, nor shanghai is the right city, since it rains an average of 5 days a week, which drives me totally nuts…but that’s another story for another time…

so, yeah I just spread my leaves all around the kitchen

When they are nice and dry, place’ em in a big bowl and add

1/2 cup of oil

pine nuts

parmesan cheese, salt and pepper

With an immersion blender, mash the basil into cream

slowly, you see …we are getting there

a few more minutes and here we have our creamy, delicious pesto!

Place your pesto into any kind of container. I use this plastic one with cover, as they are convenient and don’t break easily…since I have the power to destroy with my hands any glass item that gets in my way…but that, again, is another story for another time

Drop some extra virgin olive oil

so it gets covered

Cover with a lid and place in the fridge or in the freezer if you are not planning on using it any soon. But when you are ready to taste it, just pour a full tbsp per serving in a bowl, pour in 1-2 tbsp of the water where you are boiling your pasta, then mix it up, dress your spaghetti and sprinkle on top some more parmesan cheese…Enjoy!

Love

– LittleDani