Easy Mini Pizzas with Fresh Pesto

We love welcoming guests to ALEC to share their knowledge with our students.  As part of our summer camp, we emphasize healthy eating, so we invited Bek from Sweet Peaches on Warrington Ave. to come teach us how to make a delicious pesto.

With the help of her daughter, Bek laid out a detailed how-to on pesto preparation.

Here's her recipe:

2 c. chopped basil. She brought a gorgeous bunch of dark purple basil because of its less intense licorice flavor.
2 cloves garlic chopped
2/3 c. olive oil
1/4 c. pine nuts. Our students loved these little buttery, nutty seeds.
2/3 c. Parmesan cheese. For our batch, she used an aged parmigiano reggiano.

Blend until thick. Salt and pepper to taste.  Last step-- one squirt of lemon juice.

We put our pesto on top of whole wheat english muffins and added a little mozzarella cheese to make mini pizzas. Popped them in the toaster oven for a few minutes and voila, we had an easy, delicious snack for our students.

- Renee