With the amount of greenery that gets stuck in teeth, to lips, and in hair (me, me, and me) you’ll have to really be in love with your partner before dining on this recipe together. That said, the simplicity of a fresh pesto sauce can’t be beat and thanks to my ma, a living, breathing cookbook, I now have a new favorite summer recipe.

I remember her pesto sauce well, made many times over the years, but as she noted on the phone today I was also confusing it with a sauce she made for salmon—similar to pesto but a thicker consistency with cumin and some other ingredients.

This pesto sauce recipe she rattled off on the phone and I altered it a bit to fit the available ingredients I had in the house.

In a food processor or blender, mix the following:

2-3 cups of basil
A handful of parsley (which I didn’t have, so I used cilantro instead)
2-3 cloves of garlic
2-3 tbs. toasted pine nuts or walnuts (I used a mix of pine nuts and sunflower seeds)
Salt and pepper

Once blended it makes a kind of paste, add olive oil to moisten and thin until desired.

I tossed linguine noodles with the sauce, added sliced mini heirloom tomatoes, and maybe half a cup of parmesan cheese.