Pesto Sauce

Rinse and pat dry sweet basil leaves with paper towel and place into bowl of food processor.  Add rest of ingredients and about three-quarters of the olive oil.  Pulse mixture, pausing to scrape down sides of processor bowl.  Continue to pulse the mixture until it becomes a smooth, thick sauce, and add more olive oil as necessary.  You may end up adding more than the cup of olive oil, depending on how thick you like your pesto.  Taste for salt and pepper levels. 

Please use only the freshest ingredients for this sauce because any off flavors are going to stick out like a sore thumb due to the few ingredients.

This sauce freezes beautifully!  I make several batches of it in the late summer and early fall when sweet basil is at its bright green, fragrant best, so I can enjoy it all winter on pasta, pizza, fish and so much more.