This past weekend I flew home to Minnesota to visit my family.  My mom rose to the occasion by helping me figure out yummy things to cook the whole weekend.  Yes, my mom is the best.  She came home from the farmer’s market with a gorgeous bouquet of sunflowers and two fresh bunches of basil.

We decided to make basil pesto.  After that first step, we debated for awhile what to pair it with.  We finally settled on sauted strips of zucchini, cut to look like noodles!  Four zucchinis and 30 minutes later, we had three bowls of steaming basil pesto and multiple high fives for our effort!

We used a carrot peeler to slice the zucchinis and then used a small knife to slice those slices in half.  It was the most time consuming part of the meal but worth it for the texture.  We used a blender to make the pesto.  We sauted the zucchini for about 5 minutes and then added the pesto and chopped up grilled chicken from the night before.  After a couple of minutes, we added the chopped up roma tomatoes and then served.  Insert Italian-ish kissing fingers in appreciation.

Basil Pesto with Zucchini Noodles

4 zucchinis

3 roma tomatoes

2 bunches of basil (or 3 cups)

1/4 cup olive oil (1 tbls for sauteing)

1/2 lemon squeezed

Salt and Pepper to taste

4 oz grilled chicken

Blend the basil, olive oil, lemon and s/p in the blender.  One thing to note: when I made it the next day, I added 1/4 cup parmesan and 1 clove garlic and it was delicious!  The fresh garlic is pretty rad.

Enjoy!