with the weather turning cold here it was time to pull our basil bushes and make pesto. i made about 5 huge bowls/about 20 liters of pesto...hahah, that is a quite a freezer full. i improvised from a recipe i used last year...meaning, i never pulled it out of the pantry i just would add a bit of this and a little more of that. but, here's the main ingredients...

basil 6-8 cups

pecans - 2 cups...since we had a ton from my folks pecan trees up in illinois. some batches i used almonds or pumpkin seeds.

salt, pepper, cayenne to taste

lemon juice - 1/2 cup to cup

olive oil - 1/2 cup

vinegar: either a splash of balsamic or red wine, sherry wine...whatever you have is fine - a few glugs

nutritional yeast....this is what i use instead of parmesian...about a cup - cup and a half

you can also use a bit of miso or high quality olives with the nutrional yeast to tang it up if you don't want to use parmesian either.

*this makes a fairly zesty/tangy pesto*

you can hold off a bit on the salt/lemon juice if you want a more mild version