Pesto is so easy to make from scratch! And it tastes sooo much better than store bought pesto, not to mention that the store bought stuff is pretty expensive considering how much you actually get.
If you love pesto like I do, you should buy one of those live basil plants they sell at the grocery store and just keep it by your window. Then you always have free basil and can make pesto whenever you want!
This pesto takes five minutes to make, and it gets better and better as it sits in the fridge and the flavors continue to meld.
Pesto tip: when your pesto is about to go bad, fill ice cube trays with your pesto and freeze it. Then you have little portioned tablespoon cubes that you can pop out of the freezer and use whenever you want!
Throughout my next three posts, I am going to show you three awesome recipes in which you can use this super-simple-five-minute-home-made-pesto!
So! For the pesto. You are going to start by filling your food processor with a cup of packed basil leaves.
Then you just throw in 1 tablespoon of pine nuts, 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan, 1 clove of garlic, and then blend it all together for 5-10 seconds.
Pine nut tip: pine nuts are pretty expensive! But you don’t need many of them in any recipe you use, and they are really yummy. The best thing to do with pine nuts is to buy a bag and keep them in the freezer. Pine nuts have a high oil content, which means they go rancid pretty fast. Keeping them in the freezer ensures that they last forever and won’t go bad before you get the chance to use them in more than one recipe.
As your food processor is turned on, drizzle in five tablespoons of olive oil.
You will want to scrape down the sides of the food processor using a rubber spatula after every few tablespoons of olive oil just to make sure you get the perfect consistency.
Season your pesto to taste, blending for a few seconds after adding any salt and pepper.
And that’s it!
Perfect, easy pesto. Yum. Make sure you scrape every bit of that goodness out of there into a bowl, cover with saran wrap, and pop it in the fridge!
The first recipe that I will post using this delicious pesto is Zucchini Noodles with Pesto Cream Sauce!
Here is the recipe:
PrintPerfect Pesto Plus 3 Uses
- Prep Time: 3 mins
- Cook Time: 1 min
- Total Time: 4 mins
- Yield: 1/2 Cup Pesto 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup packed basil leaves
- 1 tablespoon pine nuts
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 clove of garlic
- 5 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- Put the basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic clove, and Parmesan cheese into a food processor and blend for 5-10 seconds
- With the food processor still on, drizzle in olive oil one tablespoon at a time, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula after every few tablespoons of oil
- Season to taste with salt and pepper, blending for a few seconds after adding any seasoning
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