I’m loving my basil plant right now. It’s being so generous that I’ve already made my favorite pesto recipe several times. Check out the recipe below. Plus, watch the video to learn how to plant and prune basil.
I love this recipe because it’s versatile. You can add it to grilled chicken breast, mix it with pasta, or spread it on bread to enjoy. Already have a favorite pesto recipe? Make this easy basil chicken recipe that Julia shared awhile back.
Ingredients
1/4 cup pine nuts (walnuts or almonds)
10 cloves of garlic
5 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups good olive oil
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Directions
Place the nuts and garlic in the bowl of a food processor. Process for 30 seconds. Add the basil leaves, salt, and pepper and process. Slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube and continue processing until the pesto is thoroughly pureed. Add the Parmesan and puree for a minute or until well mixed.
Serve immediately, or store for later use. A reader suggested preserving herbs by freezing them. You can also freeze pesto.
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price.
I, too, love pesto! I admit I am lazy but there is a vendor at some of the local farmers markets that sells organic basic for a very reasonable price so I make the pesto and freeze it.
With the earthquake in Italy (which destroyed 10% of the aging Parmesan cheese) causing rising Parmesan prices, I’m using grated Romano which costs less and I sometimes prefer (great price at Costco).
I love pine nuts (toasted slightly for a nuttier flavor) but they have gotten rather pricey so I stick with walnuts or for a real treat (and not cheap) pistacios.
I happen to prefer grape seed oil to olive (never developed a taste for olive oil) and it has the added plus of being slightly green which makes the pesto that much greener.
Now for a question. I always used my food processor but it recently broke–I’ve been looking for another one but 1) Rival has gone out of business and 2) the ones I’m looking at (in stores and online) are much more expensive than I remember.
In order to justify buying one and paying more than I want (already checked craigslist, etc) I have to prove to myself that it would be worth the investment.
I can find small ones that handle just a couple cups but that wouldn’t do me much good if I wanted to grate a lot of something or wanted to mix something too that couldn’t be done in the blender. The larger ones seem to have odd features that I don’t need and don’t want (something else to either clean or break or both and would have to store).
I invested in an excellent hand grater (yes, a great sale) so I don’t need/want a processer for that.
I invested in a couple good knives (ditto) so it’s much easier to chop up veggies, etc for things like tabbouleh…
so maybe I can find a simple way to get the basil fine enough for pesto without a processor.
( know I can use a blender for part of it..maybe I’ll go that way.
Any other suggestions?
Lynda, I’ve been making pesto in my blender for years. I don’t own a food processor.
Good info on the video. Picked up a few tips I hadn’t known before. And I’m glad you sent out Julia’s recipe again. Now I need to search and find a recipe for spinach pesto that was mentioned in a recipe I want to try.