pesto spaghetti yum yum

a few weeks ago my friend brought me to delicious and i tasted the best pesto pasta EVER. it was really creamy, and although i dislike basil leaves mixed in salads BUT by basil paste tasted totally different! it was very yummy. i was craving so much of it so i thought, hey, i could try and make it.

ok but first let me clarify that the picture below is not mine, but the end result would look something like this :)

i got the recipe from a different website, but if you want a proper recipe, click here, they are more or less the same :)

picture from here

here's what i use for the pesto pasta:

a handful of basil leaves (i used around 10 pieces)

garlic cloves (around 5 small cloves)

a handful of almonds ( you can use walnuts or hazelnuts, but i used almonds because it was what i had at that time )

1/4 cup of virgin olive oil

a dash of lemon

a little salt ( do not forget this! )

1/4 cup of grated parmesan

and to make the pesto sauce, first blend the olive oil, almonds, and garlic(use a food processor! ;)) . then, throw in the basil leaves and the parmesan and you can stop when the leaves are all blended/ chopped. i didn't really blend the mixture finely because i wanted to have some of the crunchiness of the almond and the leaves to stay, so it all depends on your personal taste.

after this, please DO NOT forget to add a dash of salt to taste, and add a teaspoon of sugar, and a dash of lemon juice ( i used less than half of a lemon for the juice) for the extra zing. i would recommend to make the pesto paste when you want to use it instead of making a really big batch and storing them up for the future. (it's much more fresher when you make it when you want to use it, no?)

last but not least, boil the spaghetti, or you can use any other pasta of your choice, and once it's ready, just throw in the paste, and mix it well. add on some grated parmesan for decoration and taste :). very easy to make, right?

so my parents were kind enough to taste it for me, and THEN my dad took a bottle of ketchup and added into the pasta. i was offended!!! because, for a malaysian, it's generally what people would add into their plate of fried rice , or fried vermicelli when it taste absolutely bland. the real truth was i've forgotten the salt *smacks head*

the pasta was how a pesto pasta would generally taste like, although it wasn't as creamy as the ones that i've tasted at delicious, but, i've also found out that adding some Heinz tomato ketchup actually gives the pasta an extra kick!!!

so here's my suggestion, do both, one with the original flavor, and the other add some Heinz ketchup and tell me if both of them taste good.

oh, and it's really hard getting basil leaves in malaysia, Jusco and Carrefour in wangsa maju doesn't stock it but i've finally found it in Cold Storage wangsa maju. they didn't just sell the leaves, they sell the plant itself! now i have my own herb plant in the kitchen weee! i foresee more pesto pasta making in the future! :)

do tell me if the recipe works for you!