Arugula & Basil Pesto

What is one way you de-stress when things are stressful or chaotic in your life or the world? I like going for my monthly massages, especially since my shoulders are forever aching, but since my massage place has been closed due to the pandemic (I can’t wait for it to reopen!) I haven’t had that outlet to relax.

One thing I enjoy doing is cooking. A lot of my friends hate to cook, but I actually really like it. The clean-up not so much. I don’t know that I find it relaxing exactly. I always end up sweating from trying to get everything done and prepped, make sure things aren’t boiling over or burning!

Most of the time my pasta is in a red sauce, but once in a while I love pesto. Store-bought pesto is good, but it’s really easy to make it on your own. Typically pesto is made with basil, pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, lemon zest, and parmesan. The time I made it in these photos here, I didn’t have a ton of usable basil from the little plant I bought at the store. I had leftover arugula so I combined the two to make an arugula – basil pesto.

All you have to do is wash your greens, grate your cheese (I used cheese that was sent to me a long time ago. I was sent wheels of cheese – thank god I could freeze them!), zest the lemon, mince garlic, and combine all the ingredients in a food processor or a mini prep like I did.

Lastly, I toss it with cooked pasta and that’s it!

So good and easy! Are you a pesto fan?