Pesto Pasta

Totally not Thanksgiving, totally not turkey or mashed potatoes or stuffing. But totally delicious, and totally authentic Italian. Totally.

My friend Michelle is Italian. As in, grandparents live outside of Lucca, Italy. (sigh) I wish!

Luckily for me though, I still get to benefit from the Italian grandma via Michelle. My lovely friend served us this recipe during the summer and I begged her (I will be the first to admit, I am not above begging) for the recipe. She served it over pasta with some grilled mahi-mahi, salad and bread on the side. However, you don't need a second main dish, the pasta can stand alone as well. Bread is a must for me though, especially since there's usually some olive oil in the bottom of the bowl to soak up.

Warning: This is not low-calorie. Look the other way, make it in the dark, promise not to eat anything bad the following day. Do whatever you must, just don't miss out on this recipe!!

And, I hope you totally enjoy this one. We love, love, love it.

Pesto Pasta
from Michelle. Recipe below is exactly as she emailed it to me.

To feed about 4 people and a pound of pasta...

2 cups of basil leaves

1/2 cup of olive oil (fyi- Michelle says 'any kind of olive oil is OK', but I know from the source that she uses Classic Olive Oil for dishes like this. EVOO has too much of a 'bite' she says)

2 crushed garlic cloves

1 teaspoon of salt

2 tbsp of pine nuts

Mix all that up in the food processor until pretty smooth, then put in pan with 1/2 stick butter and 1/2 cup of cheese until mixed together.

You can freeze from there or even refrigerate. Play around, and sometimes I put less

butter if i'm watching fat or whatever but it really does taste best with the full fat flavors in there.....the key is FRESH pesto...it is wonderful on top of fish too or the kids like it spread on bread with crushed nuts on top.

Guten appetit! And a very Happy Thanksgiving to you.

* We'll be skipping Friday's post for the holiday. See you again on Tuesday.