1. Put all the ingredients except for the oil into a large mortar and grind to a stiff paste. Once everything is pretty well ground, drizzle in about a quarter of the olive oil and grind it into the pesto. Repeat with another quarter of the oil and then another, until you have incorporated all the oil into the pesto.

2. Alternately, you can put everything but the oil into the bowl of a food processor. Buzz the mixture while slowly drizzling in the oil. The more oil you use, the more like a sauce and less like a condiment your pesto will be.

3. When the pesto is coming together, taste for salt, and add if needed. Serve your parsley pesto right away, or put in a covered container with plastic wrap set down right on the top of the pesto to keep out air. This help keeps the color nice and bright. Use within a couple days.

TIP: We like to freeze our pesto in ready sized portions, it keeps up to 6 months. We use it fresh for noodles, or use it in the winter in any noodle dishes that call for fresh parsley - a perfect substitute. Also great as soup bases and can even sprinkle it over pizza for some extra flavour.