Pesto is the Besto

Oh Pesto! You versatile Italian "Chutney". How I love thee!

Pesto has got to be the most versatile sauce that can elevate the taste of almost any meal of your day. While we love it tossed with fresh pasta, of course, I also find this fresh, garlicky sauce to be a versatile ingredient in all sorts of other dishes!

You can have it with breakfast eggs, lunch sandwiches and also use it as a dip for your chips, nachos.
Usually made with Pine nuts which is exorbitantly expensive in India I use either Cashews, Walnuts or Almonds and it is pretty darn good.
Here is a simple and a very authentic Italian recipe that I learned a couple of years ago and then I will also write a blog soon about different ways of using pesto for a quick meal!

What goes in:

1. Fresh Basil Leaves - 200 to 250 gm
2. Olive oil - 1/2 cup
3. Garlic - 1 whole bulb (around 20 - 25 cloves)
4. Cashew nuts - a Handful  (if you don't have cashew nuts you can use Handful of Almonds. You could also do a half n half for more crunch )
5. 2 pieces of Walnuts (Optional)
6. Salt, lime & Chilli flakes 

What you need to do:

1. Clean the leaves from the Basil bunch (you can preserve the stem to add to your Chai . it tastes Yummmm)
2. Peel the garlic bulb
3. Add half the Basil leaves, half peeled garlic, half Olive oil and half Cashew/Walnuts in a grinder
4. Coarse grind it, small crunchy pieces of cashews should be visible
5. Check the garlic taste as per your liking (my recipe is quite garlicky as I like it) and add the remaining ingredients in the same grinder and repeat step 4
6.  Add one teaspoon of Salt , few drops of Lime and Chilli flakes
7. Drizzle some extra olive oil on top of the pesto for more olive oil flavour

and VOILA

What do you get:

An all rounder of a dip/sauce/tastemaker whatever you want to call it. A crunchy aromatic pesto sauce. 

Remove the pesto from the grinder and preserve it in a jar. Keep it refrigerated.