Pesto this, Pesto that.

I could be called a rebell when it comes to following recipes. Cause I never do it. There is always something I leave out or put in. Mostly though because I don't have everything that would be required. Might also be the reason why I'm not an outstanding cook but only mediocre. 

But this time changing the recipe worked out so well that I will share it here. So I decided to do some pesto. We didn't have any parmesan cheese so I had to send my boyfriend to the store to get some. Pesto without parmesan is really hard to pull off and even me as a recipe-abandoning-chef would not try that. I actully did two types of pesto and although only one of them is truly heavenly, I will share both with you. If you ezpect a culinary miracle I would go somewhere else though :)

Pesto Rosso with tomatoes and walnuts

• a handful of walnuts
• 4-5 dried tomatoes
• 3 fresh tomatoes
• parmesano
• 100 ml of olive oil
• three basil leaves
• salt
• peper
• cayenne pepper

So I fried the nuts in the pan without any oil (they actually burned a little which was too bad). Then I put them into a tall bowl and mixed them with the rest of the ingredients. I have a hand blender that suceeds quite well in shredding everything into little pieces. Towards the end you can add some salt and pepper and other spices as you wish. 

Pesto Verde with mixed nuts

• a good handful of mixed nuts 
• two handfuls of basil leaved
• parmesano
• some parsley
• 150 ml of olive oil
• salt
• pepper

I had a package of mixed nuts which were meant for salads. There were some pumpkin seeds, some sunflower and some pine nuts in there. I also fried them (and this time didn't burn them), mixed them with the other ingredients and blended everything. Took me much more time to blend everything into a nice sauce but taking the time was worth it. Although I don't mind tasting little pieces of the nuts in the pesto. 

So now you probably wonder which of the two the truely amazing one and which the mediocre one is. Well, my boyfriend and I both like the green pesto much better. But yeah, thats just us :)