Pretending to be Italian

So, I had a whole bunch of basil left over from the pizza last week, as well as a whole bag of pine nuts. I was racking my brain to figure out what I could make to use up the basil when the finally the light bulb went on...PESTO! Usually I'm not a pesto person but I figured I might as well try it out. I somewhat-followed this recipe: "How to Make Pesto like an Italian Grandmother" (sans food processor) - Domenica, I know you will appreciate this... 

Ingredients

 1 large bunch of basil, leaves only, washed and dried
3 medium cloves of garlic
one small handful of raw pine nuts
roughly 3/4 cup Parmesan, loosely packed and FRESHLY GRATED
A few tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

Start chopping the garlic along with about 1/3 of the basil leaves. Once this is loosely chopped add more basil, chop some more, add the rest of the basil, chop some more. I scrape and chop, gather and chop. At this point the basil and garlic should be a very fine mince. Add about half the pine nuts, chop. Add the rest of the pine nuts, chop. Add half of the Parmesan, chop. Add the rest of the Parmesan, and chop. In the end you want a chop so fine that you can press all the ingredients into a basil "cake" - see the photo up above. Transfer the pesto "cake" to a small bowl (not much bigger than the cake). Cover with a bit of olive oil, it doesn't take much, just a few tablespoons.

More pine nuts and parm than basil, just my style :)