Pesto with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw almonds
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cups fresh spinach
• 2 cups fresh basil
• 1 jar sun dried tomatoes
• fresh grated parmesan or romano cheese
• salt and pepper (to taste)
• 1 lb pasta (any kind)

1. Place almonds in food processor and pulse until it begins to form a paste.
2. Next, add the spinach and basil leaves. Pulse a little bit then add the olive oil. Personally, I use 1/4 cup basil infused olive oil, 1/4 cup garlic infused olive oil, and 1/4 regular EVOO. This is not necessary, I have made the recipe with only regular EVOO and its still great, you also could add 2 cloves of crushed garlic with the regular EVOO if you love garlic. :)
3. Pulse the ingredients until thoroughly mixed. You can cook the pasta while you're mixing in the food processor, or after. Cook according to type of pasta and directions, I prefer al dente. I often use whole wheat rotini, because I like using different types of pasta, but regular spaghetti is always great.
4. After draining the noodles, add the pesto sauce and mix thoroughly. Take some of the sun-dried tomatoes from the jar (if you got the tomatoes julienne you do not need to do more than drain some of the oil and add them to the pasta) If you got whole sun dried tomatoes, i recommend slicing them down in half or thirds. I don't have an exact quantity of sun dried tomatoes, I usually add about half a jar for a pound of pesto pasta. You just want enough to have a sun dried tomato with every three bites or so.
5. I use salt and pepper grinders to add a couple turns of each to the entire pasta. You can salt & pepper to taste with each serving. I also like to add fresh grated Romano, or parmesan on top.

ENJOY :)

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