Basil Pine Nut Pesto

Ingredients:

• 3 cups basil leaves, loosely packed
• 1 cup parsley leaves, loosely packed
• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh garlic (4-6 cloves)
• 1 cup toasted pine nuts
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (2 or 3 lemons)
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper or to taste
• 1 teaspoon salt to taste

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil on low in a small frying pan for 10 minutes. Peel, stem and coarsely chop the garlic. Add the garlic to the oil, and lightly brown. Lightly toast the pine nuts in a large fry pan on medium-low heat. Stir, and watch carefully to make sure they don't get too brown. Remove from pan and set aside to cool when done.
2. Squeeze the lemons and strain the juice.
3. Wash the basil and parsley, shake in a colander to get rid of excess water. Pull the basil and parsley leaves off the stems, add to a measuring cup until you have 3 cups of basil and 1 cup of parsley, loosely packed.
4. Add oil, lemon, garlic, salt and pepper to the blender scraping out all the oil from the pan with a spatula.
5. Blend until smooth. Keep the blender running on low, add the parsley and basil a handful at a time, blending coarsely.
6. Add pine nuts 1/4 cup at a time, and blend. Add more olive oil & lemon if it gets too thick to blend well. Taste and blend in more salt and pepper if you like. Use the spatula to get all the pesto out of the blender, into a bowl or storage container. Using a blender stick: Make sure you have a large, deep container so you don't spatter pesto everywhere. Blend the oil, lemon & garlic. Chop the basil and parsley, then add to the liquid in stages, and blend. Then add the pine nuts, salt & pepper, and blend.