It's been a long, hot summer!! and so here is another "I hate to cook" recipe!

Basil Pecan Pesto

This is a "contamination" of traditional Italian pesto made with basil, garlic, olive oil and pinoli nuts.

The other day I was looking for a quick sauce, it was hot and I had absolutely no desire to heat up the kitchen more than necessary... I had fresh basil, fresh parmesan, extra virgin olive oil, garlic.. but no pine nuts! But... I did have a bag of pecans in the freezer that my mom had sent to me. Yes, it is very difficult to find pecans in Italy! So mamma sends them! Gotta love her!
I thought, why not!?

You will need a food processor for this recipe

Put a bunch of fresh basil leaves (washed) into the food processor bowl (the more you put, the better! I put about 1 cup of loosely packed leaves) along with 3 cloves of garlic, about 1 to 2 ounces of Parmesan cheese cut into small pieces, a handful of pecans and about 4 T of extra virgin olive oil. Process for about 15 seconds on high.

It will look more or less like like this:

 Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, add another T of extra virgin olive oil if necessary, process for about 15-30 seconds.

That's all there is to it! You can use this pesto to season pasta, to make bruschetta or it can be served with cold meats! Buon appetito!!