1. a blender cup’s worth of fresh basil leaves
2. juice of 1–2 lemons
3. ½– ¾ cup of olive oil
4. 5–10 cloves of garlic (with the center’s removed, see photos below)
5. ½– ¾ cup of roasted walnuts or pine nuts
6. ½-1 tsp of good salt (see Let’s Talk Salt)
7. (Optional) ½– ¾ cup of Parmesan cheese

Combine all these ingredients in the blender, turn it on and let it get really mixed up. You can add more oil if it isn’t blending properly. Store in a glass container. It will keep for about a week. Use it on sandwiches, with pasta, as a soup garnish, over veggies and even on a fried egg it truly makes a green egg, but NO HAM! allowed ever, anywhere in my kitchen or near one of my recipes! Actually, if you are a ham eater, of course you can use this with ham, I just don’t know how that would actually taste. The trick to almost all of my cooking, is to not skimp on the oil, the lemon or the salt. Do not be afraid when you are cooking, make mistakes, take risks, that’s how you learn. One more thing, don’t cook pesto, use it cold, fresh out of the blender or the fridge, you can put it on hot things, but my recipe doesn’t cook well, although I have occasionally used it as a marinade, but it is best fresh, not warmed up or cooked.