On the Table: Backyard Pesto

Yesterday my son took a monster nap after a very fun morning at the splash park, I'll share more about that later. So while he slept I took full advantage of my down time by doing glamorous things like laundry, showering and cooking. We picked up some roasted red pepper linguini from Ohio City Pasta the other day and it was calling my name. But I needed a sauce. Then it dawned on me that the basil was really filling in, so out I went to pick some. Then I decided to get crazy and pick parsley too. Here's how I made it.

Ingredients
2 handfuls of fresh herbs, basil and parsley
2 cloves minced garlic
Juice of about half a lemon
1/2 cup shredded parmesan
1/4 cup roasted almonds
Olive oil
S&P

I made my pesto for linguini with broccoli but you can use whatever you'd like or use it as a spread or dip. I know the ingredients for a traditional pesto but I didn't have them all so I used what I had on hand. Any nuts can work, take the extra few minutes to toast them, it's worth it. Put everything but the olive oil into a food processor and pulse. My processor is a little hinky so I had add some extra liquid to help it along so I used about a tablespoon of pasta water to get it going. Then drizzle in the olive oil until smooth. Toss with hot pasta and serve!

Baby boy was quite the fan of it too.

Here's a truthful representation of what dinner actually looks like. He insists on eating out of my bowl too to be sure we are in fact eating the same thing. Maybe he thinks I'm holding out on him or something. Needless to say it's a habit I wouldn't mind breaking. Hope you enjoy!