parsley pesto

I've been making a few recipes recently that call for parsley. Please tell me I'm not the only one to have noticed this issue. A recipe calls for, oh maybe a couple tablespoons chopped parsley so I head to the store (NOT out my backdoor....which is another lamentation all together) and buy a formidable BUSHEL of parsley. Granted, it's like 65 cents. But still. I mean, if I put three tablespoons of parsley in three meals a day for a week, I still wouldn't use it all. Good thing it's biodegradable because surely 1 in 3 households across the nation are chunkin' out loads of parsley like it's going out of style.

Then to add insult to injury. I went to the store and utterly forgot that I already had a bale of perfectly good parsley pining away its fate in my vegetable drawer. Oh boy.

So I get home and begin to struggle with two issues: 1. I have parsley coming out my ears. 2. I have tortellini (good and SO easy, by the way) that lacks a sauce. Now granted, tortellini is sometimes eaten without a sauce, or just with an olive oil drizzlish thing, but I thought my skeptic of a husband would be more inclined to try a new pasta if it wasn't just sitting there staring him in the face without some savory looking sauce.

Enter parsley pesto. Taylor likes basil pesto (though he doesn't know it's made with basil) and it's good on everything from sandwiches to pizza to obviously pasta. I thought, well, if there's a pesto looking substance on there, he will probably eat it. AND parsley is an herb so surely I can make pesto out of it. Really, more people should do this because, golly, parsley at your local grocery is very cheap and very .....ominous in quantity.

parsley pesto
{special equippment alert: food processor needed}
INGREDIENTS
5 cups parsley leaves
1 cup to 1 and 1/4 cup finely grated parmesean cheese
1/3 cup pine nuts {see note}
1 garlic clove {see note}
2 T. cracked pepper
1 T. salt
2/3 to 3/4 cup olive oil
DIRECTlONS
Mix it all up in your food processor. Add more olive oil if needed. Will yield about one and fourth cup pesto. I have a small food processor and just added everything incrementally, pulsing in between addtions.

{note}
I do not care for the taste of raw garlic. Also pine nuts are MUCH better toasted. If you want to invest a little extra time, I think this will be worth your while. Mince the garlic. Heat skillet on medium heat and add the pine nuts. Cover if your skillet has a lid. Stir every two or three minutes until toasted and delicious smelling. Remove nuts, though I don't think it matters if they stay, and add 1 -2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the garlic and stir often until slighly changed in color and fragrant, about 4 minutes. ...And then start pesto instuctions. If you cook the garlic first, I bet it would be good with two or even three cloves. Raw, I'd say one, or even a dash of garlic powder instead.

So ingenious. Put it on this pizza or make this penne pasta or even this stuffed chicken or cook it on this salmon!

{image belongs to sweetfineday}