Beautiful basil - a quick dinner

Last night I made a basil pesto sauce.....

Nice and satisfying and quick too after what seemed like a very LONG first day back at work for me. (I am blaming it all on jet lag). Photograph below shows the finished dish complete with small basil leaf by way of "presentation" for a Monday night.

The photographs are a little out of sequence but anyway I am sure you will get the drift! Place two or three large handfuls of fresh basil into your whizzing machine... Also add a handful of grated parmesan cheese, a clove of fresh garlic and a handful of TOASTED (that is the secret, I feel) pine nuts.

Photo below shows the lovely fresh bunches of basil Mr SE and I bought from the market at the weekend - 2 huge ones for $3 - that's about $3 USA dollars now too, equivalent of, and around UK pounds 1.85 so quite a bargain I would say.

Whizz all the ingredients up in your mixer/chopper/whizzing machine and drip in olive oil (probably around 1/4 of a cup or so) from the top until you get a nice 'pesto-y' consistency... As illustrated in the photograph below... Add a little seasoning and a squeeze of lemon juice too if you feel so inclined.

I threw together rather a simple and rustic looking salad for us each with lettuce, fresh parsley and avocado.

It all went down rather well until Mr SE piped up that he really normally wasn't all that keen on pesto, however this he thought was "alright"!!