Pesto!

Dear Turkey,

CSA members,

People whose moms have gardens

Will thank me for this

Pesto

(makes about 10 cups)

Ingredients (approximate):

- 5 quarts loosely packed greens (or however much your mom needs you to pull "today!"), I used about 3 quarts spinach, 1.5 quarts arugula, and a few cups basil 

- 3 c cheese (I used 2 c parm and 1 c gruyere)

- 2 T garlic

- 1 T sugar (trust me)

- 1-2 t salt

- 1-2 t pepper

- 1-2 T lemon juice

- 1-2 T olive oil

- 1-2 c nuts (yeah, pine nuts are good, but if you don't want to break the bank you can use walnuts and/or pecans)

Instructions:

- If your greens are straight from the garden, pick through them and remove hairy stems, flowers, roots, and weeds. Then wash by submerging fully in water 3x (they don't say "triple washed" on the bag from the store for nothing).

- Blanch greens (except delicate herbs like basil) in boiling water just until wilted. Rinse immediately with cold water and drain, gently squeezing out excess water. 

- Depending on the size of your food processor (and do use a food processor, it doesn't come out the same in a blender, even a pricey one), you will need to process everything in several batches. I find that this method works better, because you end up with slightly different-sized pieces of greens this way (you want everything small, but not totally smooth like a sauce). 

- Divide up your greens into four of five batches, and throw in a few of the other ingredients each time, until everything is chopped up. It doesn't really matter if each batch has all of the other ingredients, because you will stir it all together at the end.

- Start with the smallest amount of each ingredient. After you've mixed all your batches together, you can do a final taste test and increase amounts. 

- Pack into jars (leaving some room for freezing), and store in the fridge for up to a month or the freezer for up to a year. I wouldn't mess with processing and sealing the jars unless you have professional equipment. Once you start adding fat to canned goods, everything gets more complicated.

Enjoy,

Tofu