Oh my, it has been a little bit since my last post. That’s never intentional. But it’s not like I haven’t been cooking things! And I do have some photos. I just need to get moving on posting them. I’ve been in LA for a conference, in New York for a surprise trip and more.

I put this super easy pesto on my Instagram the other day and it got a great response, so I decided to expand into a blog post.

I looooove me a simple basil pesto. Normally I’d make it in a food processor, but sometimes I’m just cooking lunch for myself, or I don’t want to deal with washing the food processor.  So I’ll make a quick batch, just using my knife and some basic ingredients. You don’t even need pine nuts (I always balk at their price). I use whatever nuts and seeds I have on hand to keep things simple.

This can go on just about anything. Toss it with pasta, spread it on crostini or use it to dress your favorite roasted veggies. In this photo, I roasted a cauliflower for lunch and ate it with a simple green salad. The possibilities are endless.

Two Minute Pesto to Put On Anything

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
• 2 Tbsp. raw nuts or seeds (almost any kind will do except peanuts)
• 2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. fine, freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp. lemon zest
• 2 Tbsp. excellent quality olive oil
• Heavy pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Finely chop the basil and nuts, and add them to a small bowl.
2. Add the lemon juice, Parmesan, lemon zest, olive oil and salt to the bowl. Use a spoon to stir together and crush the basil, Parmesan and nuts together. Taste to see if you need to adjust the flavor (More olive oil or Parmesan will add savoriness and balance acid, more lemon juice will brighten up a rich pesto with acid, etc.)
3. Add to just about anything!