Pea-Basil Pesto

My entire weekend has been centered around food. Menu planning, grocery shopping, putting food away, more planning, making lunches and dinners. Then there was a lot of garden planning and talk. Staking out the areas in our yard for additional garden spaces and meeting with new neighbors to discuss a "community" garden of sorts. If that isn't a weekend of food; I don't know what is.

We always have extra frozen peas in our freezers and I have read that peas are easy to grow and freeze (future vegetable crop) so when I came across three ideas for using frozen peas I jumped at it. The ideas came from the Better Homes and Gardens February 2011 issue. Remember how many magazines I have just laying around? Well I do use them for things I promise!

The ideas were as follows: Pea-Basil Pesto, Spring Pea Deviled Eggs, and Pea-Potato Salad. I love the sound of all of them but I started with... Pea-Basil Pesto. How did you know? (**Wink**) Conveniently I had all the ingredients and some left over pasta noodles from a previous meal that I wanted to use up. What I didn't notice was that there were no measurements on the suggested idea. A problem for seasoned cooks? No. A problem for someone who has made or even ate pesto before? No. A problem for someone who isn't a seasoned cook or who hasn't even eaten or made pesto before? Possibly. I think I handled it with class.

All in all I have created my first recipe and I am addicted to the stuff. After making it the first time and tweaking it, I can't stop thinking about it and eating it. Well with in reason. In fact, I had it for dinner tonight while the boys at regular spaghetti sauce (locally made I might add).

Here is my recipe:
1 1/2 cups thawed peas
1 tbsp basil
3 tbsp olive oil (I use cold pressed)
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
3 garlic cloves chopped (please feel free to use less if you aren't crazy about garlic like I am!)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Combine in a blender and puree until smooth. To reach the desired consistency I added a bit (about 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp) of water and a drop of oil. Serves two people easily and is also great with Ritz crackers.

Bon appetit!