PASTA WITH PESTO

Pesto is a green sauce based on fresh basil ( thanks Maureen and Roel), garlic, olive oil and parmesan, used to flavour pasta and as a general flavouring. Just a little history ....pesto is so called because it originates from Italy where it WAS prepared in a pestle( pesto in Italian) and mortar. Ingredients.....2 cups of fresh basil leaves, 4 tbs of minced garlic, 1/4 cup of pine nuts, 1 cup of olive oil, crack black pepper to taste, 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese, 1 x 475 gm pack of fettucine noodles. Wash and dry the fresh basil and place in a blender with the garlic, pine nuts, a sprinkle of cracked black pepper, 3/4 cup of olive oil. Blend until smooth and add the remaining oil if necessary .(too dry ). Stir in the grated cheese. Now prepare your fettucine pasta. Place the dried pasta in a pot of boiling lightly salted water with an added slurp of oil. Drain through a colander when the pasta is tender. Add the pesto to the hot pasta , tossing until each strand is coated with sauce. Serve with extra parmesan cheese sprinkled over.