Kale Basil Pesto

We recently visited some friends in Canada. The wife is a fantastic cook and always has great ideas for getting more super foods into our diets. She made dinner for us one night and made a special meal for Molly and her son. It looked simple enough, some pasta with some pesto sauce on it. 



Molly inhaled it and tried to eat all of her friend's food too. I asked my friend what she had put into it because I was sooooo making this when we got home. She said that she buys pesto at the store and adds some kale and walnuts to it before freezing it in small batches. 



I pondered this recipe for the rest of the week, we were on vacation. One of my former co-workers used to make HUGE batches of pesto every summer and then give out jars at Christmas. These were coveted jars of pesto. My parents used to steal my jar if they saw it in my fridge. The pesto is that good. 



 When we got home, I poured through my email and found her recipe. I knew that I wanted to change it though so I could add in the kale and walnuts. I made a few other tweaks to the recipe and I have to say that it is GOOOOD! Molly and I enjoyed the pesto in our eggs this morning and I can't wait to have some fresh pasta with pesto for dinner. 



I was thrown back a bit to Molly's puree days as I froze the pesto in the Tovolo Perfect Cube Silicone Ice Cube Trays. I forgot how useful these trays can be though. I think I'll be using them to freeze fresh herbs from my herb garden, chicken broth, concentrated syrups, etc.  




Kale Basil Pesto
makes 4 cups

Ingredients
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
4 cups packed fresh basil
1/4 cup parsley
2 cups steamed Kale
2 cups Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
1 cup toasted pine nuts
1 cup walnuts
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups olive oil (more or less)

Directions
1. Toss the garlic into your food processor and pulse it for a few seconds. 
2. Add the basil, parley, kale, cheese, pine nuts, walnuts and salt to the garlic and pulse the food processor again. 
3. Slowly add your olive oil through the spout until the pesto is smooth. Scrape down the sides and run again for about 15 seconds. 
4. You can either spoon your pesto into clean canning jars or into ice cube trays to freeze. I bought out my silicon ice cube trays from when I made Molly's baby food and used those. I spooned the pesto into the trays and then thumped them on the counter to level them out. Then I wrapped them in foil overnight. Once the pesto was frozen, I took the cubes out of the trays and put them into ziplock bags. Now I have 1 ounce cubes of pesto ready for pasta, chicken, pizza or eggs!