Tasty Tuesday!!!

I am going to start Tasty Tuesday off with a recipe, because really... what else would I start it off with?


Today's recipe is one that I just tried for the first time a few days ago.  It is Pesto.  I never tried to make it before because it is made with fresh herbs and quite frankly, they intimidate me... a lot.  But I needed Basil for a recipe that came with our head chef's cooking set (be on the look out for a review of it later).  So I got the basil and did not want to pass up the chance to make some homemade pesto sauce.  So here is how it went:

First, I put some water on to boil and thawed my shrimp.  While that was happening, I grabbed a cup full of basil leaves, packed.  I put it into my magic bullet food processor.  Then, I added some Parmesan and some olive oil, just some, I didn't use measurements.  After that, I added some lemon juice (easy on the juice!) and a tiny bit of salt.  Then since I had no pine nuts, I added some oatmeal and some cream cheese.  Actually, quite a bit of cream cheese, I'd say probably 1/4 cup.  After that, I added some garlic from the minced garlic jar, along with a little garlic juice that was with it.


Then I pureed the whole thing.  This is what it looked like:

By that time, the water was boiling, so I added the noodles.  They were Rao's Homemade Tri-color bow ties.  They were pretty so I got them.  They were very tasty.

So, I let the noodles cook, let the shrimp cook... and when it was all done, I drained the noodles, added the sauce and topped with shrimp.  Easy peasy and probably the best pesto I have ever had.  So if I had to guess measurements, it would be this:


Pesto:
1 cup packed basil leaves
1/4 c. Parmesan
1/8 c. olive oil
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 c. cream cheese
1/8-1/4 c. oats
1/4 tsp. salt


Puree and serve over noodles.

Enjoy!  Let me know how yours turned out.