So, over the Christmas holidays we treated ourselves to a fancy dinner. We went to a well known Italian restaurant. I will not mention a name but you could probably guess. Everything was good except the tagliatelle with house pesto I ordered for dinner (-_-)
Maybe they were having a bad day in the kitchen, who knows. When that pasta was brought to the table it was drenched in olive oil. Olive oil is good, but not to the point where you can’t even taste the basil in the pesto. IT’S PESTO!! It was really disappointing.
Not all was lost though, I was inspired! I was thinking about quick dishes and how to make things easier and faster in the kitchen and pesto became the perfect place to start. Plus I hadn’t made it in a while. You can check out my previous pesto recipe here, this one will be slightly different.
Faster Meals Tip 1: Make things you can store long term and use as a base or addition to other meals
The great thing about pesto is it stores for a long time, so you can make a batch and use it up slowly. Plus once you get the basic idea you can have lots of fun making all kids of variations by getting creative with the ingredients.
For this batch I used:
2 bunches of basil, leaves removed from stem
Handful of almonds
Handful of cashews
3 cloves garlic
Dash of cayenne pepper
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Add the salt and pepper sparingly, you can taste the pesto after the blend and add more if it’s needed.
I made this batch very thick, if you want it lighter, you can olive oil and blend till you get the consistency you prefer. Put it in a container and refrigerate. Use it whenever you’re ready.
I will be using and experimenting with it for the next few weeks as I try out some quick meal recipes with it. I will be posting my findings (^_^)
What’s your favourite quick meal after a long day?
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