30 July 2011

Pesto Sauce & Whole Wheat Macaroni!!

Since we have a LOT of basil growing in our yard, I decided to finally make pesto, something I've been planning for the past 5 years. No kidding. With plenty of basil, a whole bag pine nuts, and a tray of garlic, all I needed was some parmesan cheese.
I adapted this recipe a lot since my sister doesn't really like basil. She actually doesn't like garlic either, so next time I'll just make pesto sauce without garlic specially for her and then make real pesto. In addition, I didn't use too much oil, since I used a whole cup of pine nuts and a whole cup of cheese. The pesto itself was therefore much creamier and thick, which I prefer over a light and liquidy pasta sauce. It also occurred to me that pesto is a raw sauce... Hm. Interesting. The nice thing was that I got her involved in the cooking process. Dinner was quite spectacular for my mum too because she didn't have to cook or do dishes.

Ingredients
1 cup fresh basil leaves!
1.5 cups spinach leaves (or more basil - again, my sister doesn't really like basil)
2 small bulbs of garlic
0.5 cup olive oil
1 cup pine nuts, toasted.
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
250 g organic whole wheat macaroni
0.5 cup water

Method.
1. Cook macaroni.
2. Wash leaves. Stick in blender with garlic and toasted pine nuts and pulse a few times

3. Add cheese, oil, and water. Pulse.
4. Scoop generous globs of pesto onto drained macaroni.
5. Sprinkle with more parmesan!
6. EAT EAT EAT!
The best part is that I made restaurant-quality sauce for literally something like a dollar.
Oh, here I am again ranting on that other person's blog (see yesterday's post) who lists the price of all the ingredients.
I'll do that here too, just so I can be "famous" and "adored".

Ingredients if I want to be honest about the price
1 cup fresh basil leaves! - $0 (from garden)
1.5 cups spinach leaves (or more basil - again, my sister doesn't really like basil) - $0.25
2 small bulbs of garlic - $0 (from garden)
0.5 cup olive oil - $0 (got reimbursed)
1 cup pine nuts, toasted. - $0 (got reimbursed)
1 cup grated parmesan cheese $~1
250 g organic whole wheat macaroni $0 (used dining dollars, so it's technically free.)
0.5 cup water $0
Total: $1.25
Price per serving: $0.25

Or, Ingredients if I want to emulate the other blog
1 cup fresh basil leaves! - $1
1.5 cups spinach leaves (or more basil - again, my sister doesn't really like basil) - $0.25
2 small bulbs of garlic - $0.20?
0.5 cup olive oil - $0.40?
1 cup pine nuts, toasted. - $3?
1 cup grated parmesan cheese $~1
250 g organic whole wheat macaroni $2
0.5 cup water $0
Total: $8
Price per serving: $1.60
IN YOUR FACE, TRITE OTHER BLOG!

I guess I'm still bitter about how that person gets so much freakin' respect for something not that notable.

I'm really glad that I made pesto sauce, since we have a LOT of basil, a lot of pine nuts, and a lot of delicious cheese. It's also so simple! I tried it on fries and it was great too. I don't think I want to use any oil next time; I'll just make it with water since the pine nuts have a lot of lipids anyway. I won't use spinach either, if I'm not making it for my sister.

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