a quick Summer Basil Pesto Rush

Today I got a delivery of a Kilo of freshly picked Basil leaves. Since the leaves very quickly darken and loose their fabulous Summer tanginess I was itchy to get home and rush them into delicious pesto.
So the recipe I used was my variation on the classic Basil pesto. Remember that the below recipe is per batch so if you are making a few batches and then jarring them you have to repeat the recipe a few times.

4 Cups of tightly packed Basil leaves
1/2 a cup of the best Olive oil you can find and then a very generous squirt of Hemp Oil
3/4 cup of mixed 1/2 and 1/2 Walnuts and Pumpkin seeds
3/4 to a cup of mixed Parmigano type Italian cheeses
4 Garlic cloves
liberal amounts of ground black pepper and salt to taste

And here we go......

The cheeses I used here were regular Parmesan, Pecorino and a new cheese called Piave Stravecchio that turned out to be a sweeter variety of parmesan.

I bashed up some Redmond Sea Salt from the bottom of an ancient lake in south central Utah and some fresh black peppercorns in my Jamie Oliver universal crusher thingy and added it to the mix of the oil, garlic and basil into the blender.

The three finely grated cheeses.

all bashed up not tooooo fine....the walnuts and pumpkin seeds

Getting the basil and oil to swirl into a nice mush like this isn't easy but try a variety of ways to push the leaves down into the mix without touching the blender blades. Do a few batches and put them into a bowl.

Add the nuts to the big bowl of tasty mush.

Then mix in the aromatic cheeses and add seasoning to taste.

Spoon the mix into canning jars making sure you bump all the naughty air bubbles out otherwise bugs will grow in the mix and all your hard work will be in vain. 

get some flaxseed oil.....omega three things here.

FULLY cover the spooned in pesto making sure the sides of the jar mouth are very well cleaned off otherwise bad bugs will grow.

So there you are........a batch of rushed Summer pesto ready to put in the back of the fridge and use at leisure to add a healthy taste sensation to any dish that begs for it.