Description
Basil pesto is THE classic pesto, and very much one of our favorite “sauces” for everything from pasta and gnocchi to appetizers and roasted meats. Pesto pizza is one of our favorites (and deliciously low-carb on a cauliflower crust), and Jose loves using the leftover pesto (if we’re lucky enough to have extra) on his eggs for breakfast.
It’s super easy to make, but just takes a little patience in procuring the freshest basil and methodically washing, drying, and separating the leaves from their stocks. But it’s all totally worth it! Homemade basil pesto is SO much better than what you can buy in the store.
Ingredients
- 4 oz good quality Parmesan cheese in block form
- 2-3 garlic cloves (1 oz) crushed
- 1/3 cup pine nuts
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 3 cups (lightly packed) fresh basil leaves
- 1/4 to 2/3 cups olive oil
Instructions
- Lightly toast pine nuts in a skillet on low heat.
- Make sure basil leaves are completely clean. Immerse stalks and/or individual leaves in a large pot of water and drain and replace water several times. Then drain and separate leaves from stems, placing leaves in a salad spinner and spinning until they release most of the water. Then dry the leaves in a clean dish towel.
- Cube Parmesan roughly, then add to a food processor bowl fitted with a standard blade. Add toasted pine nuts and crushed garlic cloves. Process these ingredients until they form tiny grains. Then add salt and process again briefly.
- Add washed and dried fresh basil leaves and process again until the basil appears to be part of the cheese/nut pieces.
- Finally, through the top spout, start adding the olive oil while the processor is on. Add the oil very slowly, stopping and testing it for taste and consistency, until the mixture becomes the perfect pesto for you. If you’re adding it to a plain pasta, you’ll want more olive oil and a looser consistency (meaning you’ll need more oil). However, if you want a stiff pesto you can dollop onto a cracker along with some goat cheese and a slice of tomato, you’ll want less olive oil in the mixture. It all depends on the end result you wish to achieve!
- Because I love pesto in all its forms, I usually double this recipe and start with a scant amount of oil. I’ll stop and put some of that aside. Then I’ll add more olive oil to make a more liquid-like substance that I’ll add to pasta or gnocchi.