Basil paste

I came across this recipe while looking for an alternative breakfast recipes. This paste sounded really perfect to me - something new, quick and easy to make. And - believe me, it tastes really, really good - some of you may know flavoured butters (smaksełko? ;) ) - they were extremely popular some time ago and very tasty, though I can't find it in any shop, can you? This is not a butter, as it is made of cottage cheese. Though I'm sure it would be same delicious as a butter! It is perfect for example with: fresh, hot bread/rolls, with cold meats, tomatoes, for brushetta, ciabatta bread... :)

Recipe, slightly changed, comes from this website.

Ingredients:

• 250g of cottage cheese (low-, semi- or full-fat)
• a bunch of fresh basil
• 1/2-1 clove of garlic
• 8 tablespoons of oil 
• 1 teaspoon of black ground pepper
• a pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of sichuan pepper

Preparation:

1. Put the cheese in a bowl, add spices (black pepper, salt, sichuan pepper). 
2. Take a blender and its bowl (or any bowl suitable for blending), put basil, garlic and oil inside, blend till smooth (or almost smooth). 
3. Mix basil paste with cottage cheese, blend till smooth.
4. Store closed in the fridge.
5. Bon Appetit! :)

Pasta with basil pesto

Ohhh my! this is the very best meal I've recently eaten! And it might be prepared in many different variations as there are a few types of pesto :) Another advantage, for those of You, who has little time - some of the ingredients - like pesto - might be bought, ready-made, no need to prepare home-made pesto :) though I do encourage You to try ;)

Recipe for a good basil pesto.

Just one important thing about basil pesto - home-made or ready-made: do not heat it up, as it may change its taste, into bitter, because of the basil, so that you may not like it anymore.

Ingredients:

• 1 packaging of lovage-flavoured pasta
• 1 jar/packaging of ready-made pesto (or see the pesto ingredients&recipe below)
• 500g of chicken breasts
• salt, pepper, oregano (optionally something else to make it more spicy, like cayenne pepper)
• grated cheese
• chopped parsley leaves

Home-made pesto:

Ingredients:

• 25g of fresh basil leaves
• 1/3 small clove of garlic
• 25g of pine nuts or pumpkin seeds or cashew or walnuts
• 10g of 'hard' cheese, (like permigiano, grana padano, pecorino)
• 70ml of olive oil
• sea salt, freshly ground black pepper

Pesto preparation:

1. Take a blender, put all the ingredients inside and crush them all into very small pieces. In the end, season with spices.

Preparation:

1. Take a pot, put water inside, add a little salt, boil. When boiling, add pasta and boil for around 10 minutes, stiring from time to time (basic pasta preparation).
2. Take the chicken, chop into small pieces and put in a bowl. Season with salt, pepper, oregano (and optionally cayenne) and stir/shake, so that it covers all the pieces.
3. Take a frying pan, add oil, start heating. Add chicken and fry till gold.
4. Strain the pasta, put some on your plate, add some chicken, put pesto on it. Sprinkle with grated cheese*, some freshly ground pepper and parsley leaves.
5. Bon Appetit! :)

*If the meal isn't hot enough anymore to melt the cheese, it is ok to add cheese before pesto and put it for a few seconds in a microwave.