Pesto Sauce

Pesto is a sauce with origins deep in the city of Genoa, situated in the northern region of Italy. Crushed herbs and garlic are main ingredients, while other variations (such as the Sicilian version) utilize other items like tomato and less basil. Today, pesto is sold in small jars in its original green appearance or red (when made with sun-dried tomatoes or red bell peppers). In order to generate your own at home, consider the following recipe, which serves six:

Ingredients:
4 cups tightly packed fresh basil leaves (washed, then dried on paper towels)
1/3 cup pine nuts (or walnuts)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Two garlic cloves (peeled and halved)
½ cup freshly grated organic Parmesan cheese
One package of linguine, spaghetti or farfalle (16 ounces)

Instructions:
1) Start cooking the pasta according to package directions.
2) Place the basil, pine nuts or walnuts, salt, garlic and olive oil into a blender.
3) Blend the ingredients on high speed until the mixture is smooth. Sometimes, you may stop the blender a couple of times to scrape the sides.
4) At this point, you can choose to add the cheese and blend for a couple of additional seconds or remove the mixture from the blender and mix the cheese by hand.
5) Drain the pasta, placing it in a warm serving bowl.
6) Mix in pesto sauce while pasta is still hot.
7) When preparing pesto for pasta, it is suggested to save some of the water where the pasta was cooked in so you may add a tablespoon or two to the sauce before tossing the pasta.