It's a good time of year for basil right now. You may have been seeing a lot of fresh basil plants for sale at your local grocery store. I trimmed a bunch of basil leaves off my plant at home today and made a delicious pesto. Typically, basil pesto is made with pine nuts, however, there are many variations. Since pine nuts are pricey or it is also something you don't usually have on hand at home, you can substitute the pine nuts with almonds or walnuts. That is usually what I do if I am not using pine nuts.

Also, here is a recipe for a half way homemade ravioli :) Making the dough is always a treat and really isn't that hard. An alternative to making the dough is using fresh wontons, which are a huge time and mess saver! So for these ravioli here I did use wonton wrappers. There is no mess and it tastes and feels just like you made homemade dough. Assembling is the long part, but it's not hard at all and having homemade ravioli is so much better!


Ingredients

For the pesto just mix everything (except the olive oil) together in a food processor until smooth, then slowly blend in the olive oil until creamy.

• large handful of basil leaves

• 4 cloves of garlic

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

• 1 tsp. black pepper

• 1/2 cup pine nuts

Ravioli:

• 1 package of wonton wrappers (found by the veggies at the grocery store)

• 2 cups of whole milk ricotta cheese

• 1 cup parmesan cheese

• 1 egg

• 1-2 tsp salt

• 1-2 tsp ground black pepper

• 2 large handfuls of fresh spinach (about 3/4 cup cooked) or frozen spinach

• zest of 1 lemon

Instructions

1. Thaw your spinach if it is frozen and let drain to get an excess water out. If you are using fresh spinach, fill a pot with a couple cups of water, bring to a boil, add spinach and cook for a couple minutes until wilted. Drain. Make sure you squeeze any extra water out.

2. Roughly chop the spinach.

3. In a mixing bowl combine: ricotta, parmesan, egg, salt, lemon zest, pepper and spinach. Mix well until all combined.

4. Put a small drop of the filling on each wonton, you don't want to over fill the ravioli because they will break but do make sure you put enough, play around you'll get the feel of it. About the size of a cherry tomato.

5. Have a little cup of water to dip your finger in and trace one corner of the wonton square, this will be like the "glue" fold over into a triangle and carefully press corners together. Then using a fork, carefully press into the edges to lock or "staple" the edges. It also gives it a little design.

6. Transfer to a baking sheet and put them in the freezer once the tray is filled. After at least 15 minutes, you can then put the ravioli in a large ziplock bag and this is how you can store them until you are ready to use it.
   When ready to use- Bring a pot of water to a boil, add salt.
   Add ravioli to the pot, don't over crowd. Once they float they are done.

   We’d love to see your finished product! Post your picture on Instagram, tag us @danimade.kitchen and hashtag it #danimade