Pesto Mayo

A friend of ours gave us a humongous bag of basil from his garden.  What to do with a gallon size bag of basil?  Pesto!

Homemade Pesto

• 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 2 cups firmly packed fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan
• 4-6 cloves peeled garlic (depending on if you’re a garlic lover)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender.  Process until almost smooth.  Add pepper to taste.

I actually made a REALLY big batch of pesto because I had so much basil.   I saved some pesto to eat now, and froze the rest…

No, that’s not what it looks like (horse manure).  I froze the pesto in an ice cube tray.  I put the pesto cubes in a freezer bag that way I can just pop one out of the freezer whenever I need pesto.

Now, to the star of the show:

Pesto Mayo

I took about 2 teaspoons pesto and mixed it with about 1/4 cup of olive oil light mayo.  You can adjust the ratio of pesto:mayo depending on your taste.  Super easy and one of the yummiest things you can put on a sandwich.  Also really tasty when used as a base for chicken salad if you’re tired of plain ol’ boring mayo.

Now for the important part.  My lunch.

Spread a nice layer of pesto mayo on both sides of the toasted whole wheat sandwich thin.

Layered on a handful of organic spinach leaves, tomato slices and warm turkey slices.  So good.  Much better than any sandwich I would buy from a sandwich shop.  I’m not sure why I don’t treat myself to this meal more often.