Frank's spinach pesto

Below are two pesto recipes. The first recipe is my own spinach pesto. This is a very thick pesto. So: not at all (!!) like pesto that you buy in the supermarket. I use this in my Spinach-pesto goat-cheese salmon feuilleté recipe - that can not be made with creamy pesto. I have added a second recipe, for the quick-and-easy regular pesto that I use in Dino's antipasti platter recipe.

Preparation time - pesto: 10 minutes (excluding thawing out the frozen spinach!)
Makes 15 servings.

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients for my spinach pesto:
750 grams (1.5 lbs) frozen whole-leaf spinach (do not use finely chopped or creamed frozen spinach)
2 tablespoons dried basil
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 - 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (never use the bone-dry pre-ground stuff!)
5 heaping tablespoons pine nuts (best if lightly toasted just before making the pesto)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for regular pesto:
50 grams pine nuts
1 tablespoon minced garlic
35 grams (1.5 oz) freshly grated parmesan cheese
50 ml olive oil (3.5 tablespoons)
1 bunch (≈25 grams ; 10 oz) of fresh basil, ends of the stalks removed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon chili powder (cayenne pepper)

EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES

For the spinach pesto:
cheese cloth, or lots of paper kitchen towels
fine-mesh sieve
food processor
medium size bowl

For the regular pesto:
food processor
medium size bowl

PREPARATION / DIRECTIONS

Instructions for the spinach pesto:
Thaw out the frozen spinach and drain very well. This takes lots of squeezing in cheese cloth or paper kitchen towels!
After draining the water, the weight of the spinach should be reduced by at least 50%!
First, I let the spinach drain by itself in a fine-mesh sieve, then I press the spinach mass with my fist, then I transfer the spinach mass onto paper towels and put this into the sieve and press - repeat until almost no more water comes out.
Important: in the end, the spinach much be a big pasty lump - no liquid should drain out if you let it sit on a plate for a while. We are not making a pesto with the creamy consistency of store-bought pesto!
Put the spinach, garlic, basil, and the salt in a food processor
Pulse several times to begin chopping & blending the ingredients, then turn to high speed and slowly pour in the olive oil until the mixture is just beginning to get smooth.
Add the pine nuts and blend some more.
Transfer to a bowl and stir in the grated cheese.

Instructions for the regular pesto:
Put all ingredients in a food processor / kitchen machine, and whiz until a puree consistency is obtained (you may have to stop several times and scrape the ingredients off the inside of the machine with a spatula). Done!

NOTES

Pesto can be made well ahead and kept in the fridge; if so, make sure that it is back up at room temperature when you are going to use it.