Basil Pesto

• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Total Time: 15 mins
• Yield: 1 cup 1x
• Category: Sauce
• Method: Food processor
• Cuisine: Italian

★★★★★

Homemade basil pesto is so easy to make! Learn how to make basil pesto with this recipe, plus learn how to properly toss it with pasta, and freeze leftovers. Recipe yields 1 cup pesto, which is enough to toss with about 12 ounces of pasta.

INGREDIENTS

• ⅓ cup raw pine nuts, almonds, walnuts, pecans or pepitas
• 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves (about 3 ounces or 2 large bunches)
• ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

1. (Optional) Toast the nuts or seeds for extra flavor: In a medium skillet, toast the nuts/seeds over medium heat, stirring frequently (don’t let them burn!), until nice and fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes. Pour them into a bowl to cool for a few minutes.
2. To make the pesto, combine the basil, cooled nuts/seeds, Parmesan, lemon juice, garlic and salt in a food processor or blender. With the machine running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Continue processing until the mixture is well blended but still has some texture, pausing to scrape down the sides as necessary.
3. Taste, and adjust if necessary. Add a pinch of salt if the basil tastes too bitter or the pesto needs more zing. Add more Parmesan if you’d like a creamier/cheesier pesto. If desired, you can thin out the pesto with more olive oil. (Consider, however, that if you’re serving the pesto on pasta, you can thin it with small splashes of reserved pasta cooking water to bring it all together. See notes for details.)
4. Store leftover pesto in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 1 week. You can also freeze pesto—my favorite way is in an ice cube try. Una volta congelato, trasferire in un sacchetto di congelatore, quindi è possibile scongelare solo quanto necessario in seguito.

All pesto recipes are dead easy. Just blitz the ingredients in a food blender to make a paste, take a tablespoon add a bit of olive oil and toss through your pasta..

I struggle to find pine nuts, so lately I have been using almonds:

• 3 cups packed fresh basil leaves from about 3 oz. fresh basil
• 1/2 cup almonds
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• In a food processor or blender, add the basil, almonds, parmesan, garlic, salt, and pepper. Turn on the processor for about 15 seconds to break down the ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the processor.
• Turn the processor on and slowly drizzle in the olive oil until well combined.
• Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.