Parsley Pesto in a Presto!

My fabulous hubster has been wanting to mimic his mama's awesome veggie garden for a long, long time now, and if you've ever been over to our home, you know we have an excess of space in the back yard for one. Well, this was the year, and though it's the very beginning, things are progressing quite nicely! We have lettuce, zucchini, peppers & broccoli growing (although there are some weird bugs on the broccoli leaves that Mike is trying to safely kill), and then there is a cute little area for my herb garden, which is my forte'. Last year I went crazy stuffing herb seeds and herb-starters into pots, only so that they could overgrow each other and become entangled and messy- not ideal for a 'type A' home cook! So, my 3 X 4 rows and columns of herbs that the hubster organized and planted for me (I am not a green-thumb person, my place is IN the kitchen, NOT in the garden), are perfection!!

Last year I got a little of every herb out there- well, not EVERY herb in the world, but the most common. And though that was fun, I really didn't end up using the lemon verbana too much or the marjoram- just not enough varieties of recipes to use them up. This year, I figured I would replace the the ones I didn't use much with a few extras of the herbs I wished I had had more of, so I ended up with; 2 big flat leaf parsley, 1 curly parsley, 1 dill, 2 gigantic rosemary (I seriously have rosemary for days so if you need some, let me know!), 1 oregano, 1 chive, 1 mint, 1 sage, and 1 thyme. I normally get a lot of basil as well to make basil pesto, but I haven't been able to find any good looking basil plants around town (do you know where I can find some?).
Well, pretty much everything is growing out of control in my cute little 3 X 4 garden except for my dill (which is disappointing because usually dill doesn't need much love or attention), so I have a ton of flat leaf parsley- perfect for a fresh pesto to; toss with a whole-wheat pasta, spread on top of a crusty bread, stuff inside a deli sammy, drizzle on some fresh veggies, stir into a vegetable soup for added flavor, or mix with some olive oil to create a sparkling salad dressing.
Here are the basics...

Ingredients & Recipe:
Printable Recipe

• 1 large bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, enough to creative about 1 cup (packed) when it is all chopped up (p.s. It is okay to use some of the stems of the parsley!)
• 1 large garlic clove
• 2 tsp. lime juice, or to taste
• 2 Tbls. olive oil
• kosher salt, pepper- to taste

There are 2 ways to go about this;

A) Coarsely chop all the parsley and combine all the ingredients in a bowl- simply mash everything together with a fork.

B) Kind of rip apart the parsley a little as you throw it in your mini-chopper. Chop the garlic in 3 pieces and toss it in the chopper, followed by the other ingredients. Pulse until you get to a desired consistency/texture-kind of chunky yet smooth.

You Could Also Try...

• Set aside a specific ice cube tray JUST for pesto- fill the little compartments with your homemade heaven and then cover with plastic wrap, followed by a freezer bag. Freeze your ice cube tray full of fresh pesto and save it away for for your next special use! When you're ready to cook with it, just pull the tray out and thaw in the fridge for a few hours, or defrost for 30 seconds-1 minute in the microwave, and use however much pesto you need. Again, freeze the leftovers for another day!
• Ideas for ways to use pesto; toss with a whole-wheat pasta, spread on top of a crusty bread, stuff inside a deli sammy, drizzle on some fresh veggies, stir into a vegetable soup for added flavor, or mix with some olive oil to create a sparkling salad dressing.