Pesto

First make "proto-pesto":

3 cups basil, packed very tightly (this is often "half a plant", sometimes a whole plant)
1/2 cup pine nuts
garlic: enough cloves to make about half an ounce by weight

Spin together in Cuisinart. Usually I start by banging the garlic
around until it's fairly small, scraping down frequently, then add the
pine nuts, spin them around, stopping and scraping a couple of times,
until they are coarsely ground, then add the basil, sometimes it needs
a little pushing down to get it to be sucked down into the blade
mechanism. Scrape down and rerun a couple of times until it is all
chopped very finely. If it's having a lot of trouble, drizzle in a
tablespoon or so of olive oil.

Yield: about 2 cups

Pack into ice cube trays or mini muffin trays and freeze. (Note:
frozen cubes may be difficult to extract. I use a table knife to force
down between the side of the tray and the pesto, which usually pops it
out.) I usually get about 15-20 cubes.

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For pesto sauce:

First make a white sauce:

1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup flour
1.5-2.5 cups milk or milk substitute (soy milk works great)

Heat olive oil. Add flour. Whisk while it bubbles for a bit. Dump in
about half the milk. Whisk occasionally as it heats. (Whisk more
vigorously if the flour clumps. But don't panic.) When it starts to
bubble, pay attention to its becoming thicker, and add more milk, and
repeat the process until you have the desired thickness.

Defrost and add 5-6 cubes of proto-pesto. You might need more cubes if
you actually ended up using 2.5 cups of milk.

Serve over pasta with lots of Parmesan cheese (or cheese substitute if
vegan).