I love pesto. I used to buy it in plastic round containers from the greek deli I worked at in Hobart. I haven't had any for a long time though, ever since coming back to Malaysia. Delicious by Ms Read serves up a really good basil pesto pasta but it's really pricey.

When mum brought back a bunch of basil from the morning market, I had a great idea! The ingredients were really expensive but this time I really wanted to do it, so I did.

The recipe, from Jamie Oliver

1/2 clove of garlic
pinch of salt and black pepper
3 handfuls of fresh basil, leaves picked and chopped
a handful of pine nuts, very lightly toasted
a good handful of grated Parmesan cheese
olive oil

method:
pound all of the above, in the above order using pestle and mortar or food processor if u're lazy like me. season to taste, then add more oil or cheese according to taste.

it looks ugly but is really yummy mixed through hot pasta.

speaking of pasta, I tried a low fat creamy pasta recipe.
it turned out okay but of course...nothing beats the real bacon+egg yolk carbonara recipe.

creamy pasta

1. fry some chopped onion and garlic in oil till fragrant.
2. add 300g of whatever processed meat you have lying around, ham or sausage or pepperoni. also add 1 cup sliced mushrooms and 1 cup peas.
3. pour in 1/2 cup chicken stock, let it simmer. mix up 1/2 cup of cornstarch with water, then mix that with 375ml evaporated milk. add that to the pan.
4. stir, let it boil and thicken.
5. sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve over cooked pasta.