Recipe - Easiest but tastiest Pesto

Hello everyone! Bon jour!
As promised in my first blog, I will be including several recipes and here's one but before that I want to share a very funny story. This happened when I was dating Jim, about 14 years ago. Let us rewind a bit. We met on a Thursday (that is when he was still a member of a gay and lesbian running group in the city - Frontrunners/Frontwalkers). After the run, he went out to dinner and later decided to go to the bars for a drink and there I was, his future Princess (in my dazzling tiara) - turned Queen of the House. So, in short, we celebrated every Thursday wherein we alternated making dinner. How romantic. One week, I was planning for my menu and decided to have a pasta course and pesto was my sauce of choice. I asked my best friend Michael Cruz of LA for his recipe. So in the process, he asked me if Jim likes garlic as much as I do. So he instructed me to put in a clove of garlic and if we really like the flavor maybe 2. I put in a head of garlic!!!! We not only drove away any potential Dracula away but also we were like garlic-puffing dragons for a week, at least! So that is my pesto story. Now here is my version of a very much revised recipe:

1 cup fresh basil (washed and dried on sheets of paper towels
1 cup pine nuts
1 - 1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil (born again virgin olive oil is not a good substitute)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (only the Reggiano type please)
1 - 2 cloves of garlic (now, depends on yor taste BUT I would not put in even half a head!)
salt and pepper to taste

I start by roasting the pine nuts in a heavy skillet for about 2-3 minutes. Make sure you keep stirring to make sure that each nut is evenly browned (roasted). Let cool.

Next put the cooled pine nuts, garlic, basil leaves, parmesan cheese and maybe a teaspoon freshly ground pepper in a blender and pulse it for half a minute. Slowly drizzle the olive oil while finishing up blending the mixture. For seasoning (any dish for that matter) I keep tasting it and adjusting either the pepper or salt or more Parmesan cheese. Most of the time it is the latter.

We use this mainly for pasta but occasionally we use it on fish filets or chicaken breasts which is perfect.

Have fun, enjoy and as Ms. Julia used to say, "bon apetit!"

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