Pesto

·         Use a nice big mortar and pestle.  Tear off the washed, dried basil leaves and pound them first until they’re quite mushy.  Put this into a different bowl.

·         Peel the garlic and put this, with a pinch of salt, into your mortar next and pound it to a paste.  Add the basil back in and pound it together to combine.  Put back into your different bow.

·         Put your nuts (my preference if for cashews) into your mortar next.  You want the pounded quantity of nuts to be about equal to the pounded quantity of basil and garlic.  Pound the nuts to a paste.

·         Now mix the basil mixture in with the nuts.  Grate in some parmesan.  Mix and taste.  Keep adding parmesan until you like the taste.

·         Mix in olive oil until it is your desired consistency.  Some people like just a squeeze of lemon juice at the end.