Description
Easy recipe for fresh pesto. Great on pasta, pizza, chicken, sandwiches, and more! Recipe is entirely flexible – adjust as desired.
Ingredients
- 3 cup basil leaves, loosely packed. A little over 1 oz
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted if desired
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2– 3/4 cup shredded fresh Parmesan cheese
- optional: squeeze of fresh lemon juice (couple teaspoons) plus a little of the grated zest.
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- a few cracks pepper
Instructions
- Place basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor. Process until finely chopped.
- With processor running on low, add in olive oil.
- Scrape down sides of processor and add cheese and salt. (Also add lemon here, if using). Process just for a minute until cheese is combined and broken into small pieces, but not pulverized.
- Sample pesto and add more salt to taste.
Notes
Tip for vibrant green pesto:
For extra bright green pesto, bring a medium pot of water to a boil. After measuring your basil, submerge it in the boiling water for 5 seconds, no longer than 10, and immediately dunk in super cold water and then onto a paper towel. Pat dry and use immediately in recipe.
Freezer Instructions:
- One of the great things about pesto is that it freezes well, so you can make it in the peak of summer when your basil is going bonkers and then have it all winter long. Just put it in an ice cube tray and after it’s frozen pop all of those cute little cubes in a zip-lock bag or freezer container. Pull them out any time you need a burst of fresh flavor. You can also put the whole batch of pesto in a freezer container, freezer bag, or foodsaver bag.
- Prep Time: 10