Pesto

A few years ago when I visiting my sister, she made a really good pesto that was very light. It turns out she substituted most of the olive oil for chicken stock. I actually prefer the version with stock over a very oily pesto. Stephanie and Eric came over for dinner tonight; since basil still is not really in season in Michigan, I cut my pesto with baby spinach. Pesto is easy.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of baby spinach
• 1 cup of basil (or that's about what was in the package I bought...I would have used more if I had it)
• 1/4-1/3 cup of chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/3 cup of grated parmesan and romano
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• sea salt
• 2 tablespoons of pine nuts (optional)

I added the basil, garlic, olive oil, and about half of the chicken stock to the food processor and blended. Next I added the spinach and the rest of the chicken stock and blended. The cheese came next, after which I tasted it and adjusted the amount of salt. I was out of pine nuts, so this didn't include any, and wasn't lacking without them.

We ate this over farfalle, paired with marinated chicken. The chicken was marinated in olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, basil, oregano, thyme, salt, and black pepper. After it was cooked, I topped it with some of the pesto. I often make this for Nicole, but use shrimp rather than chicken; the same marinade works well for shrimp.