Rachels Pesto

Ingredients:

• Bag of fresh spinach (about 6 oz.)
• 1 garlic clove
• Parmesan Cheese or Pecorino Romano Cheese (about 1-inch x 2-inch piece, cut into 3 or 4 pieces)
• Handful of nuts (about 1/2 c. – I generally use pecans, but you can use any nut you like)
• 2 large handfuls of fresh basil
• Extra virgin olive oil (about 2 TBSP)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 lb. pasta
• Reserved pasta water (about 1/2 c.) to thin
• Add ins: tomatoes, mozzarella, grilled chicken, parmesan etc.

Directions:

1. Add the spinach, garlic clove, parmesan cheese, and nuts to a standard sized food processor and process until you have enough space to add the basil. If you can’t fit all the spinach in at once, process what you can until you have space to add the remaining spinach. 
2. Add the basil and the salt and pepper and process until everything is finely chopped (no large pieces of parmesan cheese remain and nuts are chopped). 
3. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil.  Add enough olive oil so that pesto mixture is just coming together.  The consistency is not sauce like at this point (more like finely chopped ingredients) and it should be quite thick with no visible amounts of oil.
4. Taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed.
5. Meanwhile cook your pasta.  Once pasta is cooked, reserve about 1/2 c. pasta water (to ensure you have enough), and add the pasta to a large bowl.
6. Add the thick pesto to the top of the pasta and add 1/4 c. reserved pasta water to the top of the pesto.  The pasta water thins the pesto.  Begin tossing the pesto in the pasta.  If the pesto is still too thick, you can add more reserved pasta water (start with 1/8 c. at a time).
7. Once all combined add tomatoes, mozzarella, and/or chicken, if using, and top the with fresh grated parmesan cheese.

Rachel’s Pesto: