grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

  • Home
  • Bio
  • Publishing
  • SHOP!
  • Garden
  • Food
  • Reading & Books
  • Sunday Letter

Homemade Basil Pesto

May 28, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

basil and easy homemade pesto recipe

Since I have lots of basil growing in my garden, I decided to make homemade basil pesto last weekend. There is nothing like fresh pesto. And if you’ve never made it before, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is.

how to make homemade basil pesto

Homemade Basil Pesto

Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes mins
Cook Time 5 minutes mins
Total Time 10 minutes mins
Servings: 1 /2 cup
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup tightly packed fresh basil
  • 2 Tablespoons pine nuts
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 inch chopped garlic scapes optional
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  • 2 Tablespoons freshly grated Italian Parmesan or Pecorino

Method
 

  1. Mix first 5 ingredients using food processor or stick blender.
  2. Add cheese and pulse again until blended.
  3. Refrigerate.

Notes

I used chopped garlic scapes because I had a bunch. If you aren't familiar, scapes are the flower shoots or stems of the garlic plant. They have a mild garlicky flavor—sort of a garlic flavored scallion. Feel free to omit this from the recipe, if you prefer. 
making basil pesto with garlic scapes

As you can see, I didn’t chop my garlic scapes. Easier to blend if you do…

 

While basil is in season and readily available, you may want to make a large batch and freeze for later, but freeze before adding the grated cheese.

Use as a spread on sandwiches. Mix with pasta. Be creative! Pesto is great to have on hand. HERE’s a 25 recipe roundup using pesto—all the dishes look fantastic.

On Memorial Day, we used it on John’s amazing smoked basil burgers instead of mayo or mustard. (Recipe coming to the blog soon!)

smoked basil burger with homemade pesto

Are you a pesto fan? What’s your favorite pesto recipe?

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

“A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.”
― Saint Basil

Filed Under: Food & Recipes Tagged With: Basil, organic gardening

Wanna receive posts via email? Sign up here!

Comments

  1. Joyce says

    May 28, 2014 at 9:52 pm

    That’s great. I wish I had a garden with fresh spices.

    http://joycelansky.blogspot.com

  2. Dorothy Johnson says

    May 29, 2014 at 7:33 am

    I’m really battling garden envy! I do grow herbs on my patio, and basil is usually prolific so I saved the recipe. The Basil Burger looks particularly tasty and the pickled radishes intrigue me.

  3. Valeria Gibertoni says

    September 1, 2024 at 1:19 pm

    Pasta with pesto, green beans and potatoes. The best!

    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      September 1, 2024 at 4:39 pm

      yum!

  4. Valeria Gibertoni says

    September 1, 2024 at 6:15 pm

    ❤️ I’ll cook it for you guys! It is how the Italian eat pesto… it is really delicious… I made a batch today from the basil in the garden…. I was inspired by you and your letter!♥️


Hi! I'm Talya Tate Boerner. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (2022)

THE THIRD ACT OF THEO GRUENE (coming 2025)

Recent Ramblings:

  • Sunday Letter: 11.23.25
  • Maggie and Miss Ladybug: My New Children’s Nature Book
  • Sunday Letter: November 9, 2025
  • Sunday Letter: Oct 26, 2025
  • Sunday Letter: Oct 5, 2025

Novels:

Coloring Books:

Fiction-Themed Coloring Books

Backyard Phenology:

Children’s Nature Book:

Never miss a blog post! Subscribe via email:

Looking for something?

Categories

All the Things!

A to Z April Blog Challenge Autumn BAT Book Reviews childhood Christmas creative writing prompt Dallas Desserts Fall Fayetteville Food Gracie Lee Halloween Hemingway-Pfeiffer holiday recipes home humor Johnson Family Keiser Lake Norfork Lucy and Annabelle Mississippi County Mississippi Delta Monarch butterflies Munger Place Nana nature Northeast Arkansas Northwest Arkansas Osceola poem Reading Schnauzer simple living simple things spring spring gardening Summer Talya Tate Boerner novel Thanksgiving The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee Thomas Tate Winter Wordless Wednesday

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!

All content and photos Copyright Grace, Grits and Gardening © 2025 · Web Hosting By StrataByte