Pesto
Ingredients
- 2 cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves
- 1/4 cup fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
- 1/4 cup pine nuts (Italian: pignoli)
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 Tbsp. butter
Place all the ingredients in a blender. Puree until the sauce is smooth, pushing down the basil leaves as necessary. When you use the sauce on pasta, reserve 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water before draining. Use all or part of this water, together with the pesto, for the sauce. When you mix the pesto sauce with the pasta, stir in enough of the reserved cooking water to provide the proper consistency.