Cashew Basil Pesto and How I used it

Cashews are my favorite nut because they taste the best for its price; like macadamias are delicious, but a lot pricier than cashews. A typical pesto is made with pine nuts, but cashews are a great replacement and it’s more likely that you have cashews on hand than pine nuts. Make this cashew pesto and save quite a few grams of fat as well as money because pine nuts are extremely high in fat and price.

Ingredients:

• 50 fresh basil leaves
• 1/3 c. roasted cashews
• 1/3 c. parmesan cheese
• 1 small garlic clove
• 1/3 c/ olive oil
• 1/4 tsp. lemon juice (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Throw the basil, cashews, cheese, and garlic into a food processor and chop until mixture is mostly green and coarsely chopped
2. pour olive oil down the chute slowly and lemon juice
3. put salt and pepper little by little, tasting gradually because a little salt goes a long way.

With the fresh pesto, I made a pesto cream sauce to pair with cheese tortellini. I used frozen cheese tortellini and combined the pesto with heavy cream, flour, and butter as a bechamel/alfredo sauce. If you don’t have heavy cream, use milk and the bechamel sauce should taste just as great.