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Basil Pesto

Basil Pesto

Ingredients

  • 2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
  • Salt to taste
  • 2-4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts
  • 1/3 - 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/3 - 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan or other hard cheese

Recipe

Rinse basil, discard big central stems, and pat dry. Crush garlic with your preferred method. Lightly toast pine nuts or walnuts in a dry skillet or on a baking sheet in an oven at 350 for 5-10 minutes. (With either method, be sure to move the nuts around often - they burn easily. They're done when the outside is brown, not black, and they taste good!)

Combine basil, salt, garlic, nuts and about 1/4 cup of the oil in a food processor or blender, or smush together by hand. Add the rest of the oil gradually as the smushing/processing continues. Store in the fridge or freeze!

Serve with pasta, over potatoes or cauliflower, as a sandwich spread, pretty much anywhere you'd like!

Adapted from an older edition of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything

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