fresh basil pesto sauce

What does one do with nearly 10 pounds of fresh basil? 

I recently attended an event hosted by Cookbook author and creator of BuzzFeed Tasty (!) Kanchan Koya and Gotham Greens in Gowanus, Brooklyn.  What's better than a night of networking, a homemade meal (featuring recipes from Koya's new cookbook Spice Spice Baby), and a private tour of Gotham Greens' Greenhouse located on the rooftop of Whole Food's Gowanus?  If there was one thing slightly better, it's leaving with a goodie bag consisting of nearly 10 pounds of fresh, Gotham Greens basil.   

I was heading to the North Fork for the weekend and new exactly what to do with all that green.  Improvising from a good friends' mom's famous pesto recipe, I whipped the below recipe and saved the remaining to freeze for future use. 

*This recipe used all of the pesto, but I broke it down based on 7 cups of pesto. Assuming you'll have extra to freeze. 

Ingredients 

• 7 cups fresh basil, stems removed 
• 1.5 cups extra virgin olive oil
• 6 peeled, whole cloves garlic 
• 1/5 - 3/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese 
• 1/3 cup pine nuts (you can use: walnuts, almonds, pistachios, sunflower seeds, too)
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
  
• Fresh squeeze lemon to taste  

Directions

1. Remove stems from basil leaves (it's ok to leave some on small leaves, better to remove on the larger leaves). 
2. In a blender, add 6 cups basil leaves, 6 cloves of peeled whole garlic cloves, 1.5 cup olive oil.  Blend for about 15 seconds. 
3. Open top of blender and add in the cheese and nuts of your choice and blend for about another 15 seconds. 
   
4. Once blended, add a few squeezes of lemon, salt and pepper. Blend and taste. Adjust spices until desired flavor and consistency is reached. 

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This pesto can be used on anything from pasta (served both hot and cold), sandwiches, mixed in eggs, or as a dip - basically use any excuse to eat this. It's that good.