Walnut Basil Pesto

I had to trim back the basil plants this week.  They were about the flower, so I cut back all of the longer branches of each of them so that they will be encouraged to regrow and put out more from the base.  There were four different types of basil here, purple, regular broad leaf, cinnamon, and Thai basil.  I decided to try a new recipe for pesto, a Basil Walnut Pesto.  Rinse the fresh basil in salted cold water in the sink to get rid of any bugs that you may have brought in on them, although I didn't find any.  I'm thinking basil may be a little too strong for the routine garden bug.

Toast the walnuts in a skillet, then put the basil leaves, walnuts, garlic in the food processor, drizzle in the olive oil and pulse.  Add salt to taste, along with some lemon juice.

 This recipe didn't include any Parmesan cheese, although I think I'll add it when I use it.  She developed her recipe to allow this pesto to be frozen, so leaving the cheese out was for that reason.  I don't know if I would ever use enough to freeze...I do like it, but not on everything!  It tasted great, although the color is not the beautiful green that you see in most pesto because I used the purple leaves.  Possibly I should have made it either all purple, or all green.  Despite the looks, it was good.  We like it on that crusty bread when you make turkey and swiss sandwiches...yummmmm!  Heavenly!

I tell you, the kitchen smelled fantastic after I made this --- I love the smell of fresh basil leaves, just brushing by it in the garden is a great experience.