I’m not a marinara sauce girl. I know, I know. “It’s classic.” “How do you love pizza and pasta but NOT red sauce?” There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, I would choose an alfredo, olive oil and spices or pesto sauce over marinara any day.
A homemade pesto is one of my favorite things. Atop a delicious pile of pasta, as a flavor base for scratch-made pizza, as a dip for steamy homemade bread, swirled into mashed potatoes for an extra oomph, slathered on crunchy bread with tomatoes and balsamic for a mouth-watering bruschetta. I’ll take it all, please. I don’t discriminate. That freshness from the lemon juice, earthiness from the nuts, richness from the olive oil and overall herbaceous punch is hard to beat.
As a self-proclaimed master of the last-minute dinner, I went out to the garden to forage for pesto fixin’s with zoodles already cooking on the stove, just awaiting the fulfillment of their destiny (to drown in homemade pesto, obvi). You can imagine my dismay when, anticipating bountiful basil, I discovered that our basil is apparently the most underperforming plant in our garden. *facepalm*
Now, I’m an equal opportunity herb lover. And some of my other herbs were growin’ like weeds (but not literally, because herbs are delish and weeds are not… I’m assuming…). Sage and basil go together like… basil and sage! So I gathered both and planned an herby pesto wedding in my blender. Another thing I didn’t have in my pantry? Pine nuts. Because what do you ever buy those for, except pesto, amirite?
[Finds other nuts in pantry. Throws some in blender].
Don’t you love it when being out of a certain ingredient turns into a happy accident because it’s still delish and now you don’t have to keep a half-used container of pine nuts in your pantry for the rest of forever? This pesto turned out to be the besto, and I’m not mad about it. Throw it on some pasta, or a big pile of zucchini and carrot noodles for a gluten-free, paleo version. Add in a few venison meatballs if you’re not trying to be vegan or anything. But regardless of your food preferences, you should make this. And then invite me over.
[cooked-recipe id=”115″]
