. dash of food .

Photograph by kaishin chu © 2009 . The Bonus - Basil Pistachio Pesto Well, after lamenting over the loss of production from my basil plants, I had a colander full of uninfested basil leaves that were rescued one by one from the culled stalks. J washed and cleaned these one by one to make sure there were no hidden baby scale bugs still attached. I had never before made fresh basil pesto before, but seen many different recipes, so figured I couldn't go too wrong. One thing missing though, was Pine nuts. I haven't seen pine nuts here yet, though I know China produces them and does eat them in the north country. I figured I would try substituting with the excellent pistachios we had on hand for sake of experimenting. It turned out great and was delicious :) Ingredients: Phase 1: 2 cups fresh basil, packed 2 med - large cloves garlic, peeled, roughly chopped (about 2 tbsp, or half this, if you prefer) 1/2 cup pistachio nuts, shelled 1 tsp fresh lemon juice 1/4 tsp.fresh lemon