Pesto Sauce

I never realized how easy pesto sauce is.  As a vegetarian my whole life, one dish I have grown to dislike is spaghetti.  Often times, a vegetarian is brought to a restaurant where the one and only dish you can have is...spaghetti.  Or a vegetarian goes to someone's house for dinner, that has never met a vegetarian before.  They have no idea what to serve you...so you get....you guessed it!  spaghetti.  Not to mention that my first few years in college was very vegetarian unfriendly and usually, my only option for years was spaghetti.

I avoid spaghetti like the plague.

But, pesto sauce makes it all better.  Pesto makes pasta seem exotic.  It gives a whole new meaning to a box of spaghetti noodles that cost only .88 cents.  Pesto + Pasta = perfection!  To my health and weight conscious followers - it's a little fattening.  It's "healthy fat" ingredients - olive oil and nuts.  But, fattening nonethless.

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Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cups tightly packed fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup lightly toasted pine nuts
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup olive oil

Directions:

1.   Combine all ingredients except olive oil in blender or food processor
   
2.  Process until finely chopped
3. While still slowly chopping, slowly add the olive oil.  Continue processing until it's smooth

Serve over pasta!