Hazelnut and Thyme Pesto

This is almost the complete opposite of the traditional Genovese pesto with basil and pine nuts.  It's the basil that, when ground in abundance, makes any sauce fresh and fragrant.  Genovese pesto tastes and looks of summer and vitality.  Not the ones you get in jars that's lying somewhere on the color spectrum between cheap green tea and coffee-stained napkins , but the homemade ones that look of a bright green garden in the sun.  

This is winter. This is up in the mountains hovering over the fire with a mug of hot chocolate.  It's earthy and it's comforting.  

Right now that's what I'm craving.  Comfort.  I want to be curled up on the couch and feel calm and warm and relaxed and serene and just.. still. 


Life's exhausting on so many different levels, and I hate to be that negative dark cloud looming over people.  I feel like I'm just sucking the happiness out of everything and everyone else as well.  And then people care and people are nice to me, and I feel even worse, and then it's just a vicious cycle. 

That's why I can't be upset.  That's why a lot of people put on a bright smile every morning because it's even more exhausting to be upset and face other people's reactions. 
Hah.  So guess what I literally just found -- http://whytheworlddoesntsuck.com/

Well, here's a comforting pesto recipe for you.  Hope you're having time than I am xoxo

Makes enough sauce for 180g of pasta (portion for 2)
Ingredients
80g hazelnuts
1 clove of garlic
leaves from 1 small sprig of thyme
50g parmesan
1 tbsp olive oil
2-3 tbsp of milk

Method
Preheat oven to 180C.  Put the hazelnuts on a single layer on a baking tray and put it in the oven for about 5-10 minutes. Keep checking just to make sure they don't burn.  When they're done, put them on a dishtowel, fold it over, and rub them vigorously until the skin comes off.

Put in a food processor along with all the other ingredients, adjust the quantities of each to your liking, and add a bit of milk to loosen it up.