Never Go Up Against a Silcilian*...Pesto (adapted from Cooking Light)

1/2 cup pine nuts

6 elephant garlic cloves

8 cups basil leaves

1/2 extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

4 ounces Pecarino Romano cheese, cut into small cubes

~Heat a small skillet over medium. Add pine nuts; cook until lightly toasted, tossing occasionally. Remove from heat.

~Combine nuts and garlic in food processor bowl; process until minced. Add basil, olive oil, salt and pepper; process until blended, scraping sides occasionally. Add cheese; process until smooth.

~To Freeze: place 1/4 cup blobs of pesto on silpat-lined baking sheet and flash-freeze for approximately 2 hours. Remove blobs and place in ziploc bag. These can then be added to soups or hot pasta or microwaved for 20-30 seconds to put on slices of Italian bread~ umm!

*Those of you that know movies will obviously recognize this line from The Princess Bride, in which Vizzini tells the Dread Pirate Roberts "Never go up against a Silcilian when death is on the line"~ obviously, we Silcilians take our pesto seriously!!