Pesto change-o!

***Update*** We just got finished with dinner a short time ago and the pesto was terrific. As I mentioned I was worried it may be a little drippy, but it was perfect. Yummy!!

I got it in my head to make a pesto chicken pizza for dinner tonight. I have everything in the house but the pesto - a pre-cooked pizza shell, chicken I cooked earlier in the week, and plenty of mozzarella. I could have bought pre-made pesto, but I thought making it myself would be better, and since I've never made pesto before, I figured it would be a fun, new challenge. So I made some last night ahead of time so I'd have less sto do when I came home from work.

This recipe called for almonds since pine nuts are fairly expensive. However, when I toasted the almonds, some of them came out way overdone (and I only put them in the oven for about 5 minutes and spread them across the pan well) so I had to pick out the ones that were ok to use (i.e. not "crispified"). This unfortunately resulted in me having a drippier than normal pesto sauce since I didn't have the full 1/4 cup, but I tested it and it's still tasty. I used a dark pan and they were slivered almonds, so those were probably reasons for the "over-toasting). Either way, the sauce will be just fine on a pizza since the dough will soak up any excess "liquidy-ness" so I am looking forward to dinner tonight!

(p.s. Making up new words is fun!)

Easy Pesto
(from allrecipes.com)

1/4 cup almonds
3 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1 pinch ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Place almonds on a cookie sheet, and bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly toasted.

In a food processor, combine toasted almonds, garlic, basil, olive oil, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Process until a coarse paste is formed.