Fabulous pesto!

Pesto adds to many dish­es. The clas­sic pesto, of course, con­sists of sweet basil, Parme­san cheese, olive oil, pine nuts and gar­lic. Talk about ver­sa­tile! This won­der­ful condi­ment punch­es up every­thing from omelets to chick­en to pasta.

• Add a tea­spoon or so to scram­bled eggs to add fla­vor and nutrients
• Top cooked chick­en with a cou­ple of tea­spoons — let sit a few min­utes before serving
• Serve with mini-toasts or baguette pieces as an appetizer
• Cook the pas­ta of your choice and toss with pesto. Add chick­en and toma­toes if you prefer.
• Freeze pesto in old fash­ioned ice cube trays. Store cubes in the freez­er bags — each cube serves as a sin­gle por­tion for cook­ing through­out the winter!

This recipe is so easy to make — all you need are the ingre­di­ents, a food proces­sor or blender and some stor­age containers.

Clas­sic Pesto Recipe

2 cups fresh basil leaves

2 table­spoons pine nuts

2 cups grat­ed Parme­san cheese*

3 gar­lic cloves, minced (4 if small)

1/2 cup olive oil

*You can sub­sti­tute Asi­a­go or Romano cheese for sharp­er taste.

Blend basil leaves in food proces­sor fit­ted with stan­dard blade. Add pine nuts, cheese and gar­lic in the order list­ed until a thick paste forms. Add olive oil to the proces­sor by driz­zling in steady stream to mix through. Scrape sides as need­ed. Pesto should be the con­sis­ten­cy of a smooth paste. Cov­er and keep refrig­er­at­ed, will last up to five days.

Oth­er variations

Pesto can be made in count­less vari­a­tions. Cre­ate your own!

If you pre­fer less cheese, scale back to 1/2 cup of cheese and add more nuts (1/2 cup of nuts com­pared to the pre­vi­ous 2 tablespoons.

Try mak­ing a cilantro pesto with cilantro, pecans, Asi­a­go cheese, gar­lic, olive oil and a tea­spoon of lime juice. Use the pro­por­tions & method above. Although she bought the cilantro pesto, my friend Diane recent­ly served cilantro pesto this way: wrap the pesto and salmon with cedar paper soaked in water and grill. (Whole Foods car­ries cedar paper.) Wow! Thanks Diane!

If you use the sharp­er cheeses like asi­a­go or Romano with the basil, pair it with a stronger meat to stand up to the taste: thanks my good friend Carter, here’s a ter­rif­ic steak ver­sion: grill or broil a steak. Top with the Asiago/Parmesan pesto. Place in a warmer or under a broil­er just until the pesto starts to bub­ble, then brown on top of the steak. MMM! He sug­gests a stronger wine, like Shi­raz, as the per­fect choice for this meal.

This sug­ges­tion is from Col­in Cowie’s fab­u­lous book Effort­less Ele­gance: “puree oil-cured black olives and extra vir­gin olive oil for a quick and easy ‘pesto.’ ” Anoth­er sug­ges­tion: “Puree arti­choke hearts with gar­lic, pine nuts, and extra vir­gin olive oil.”  (Great book by the way. Every­thing I’ve ever made from it is fabulous!)