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.
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
Instructions
- Mix first 5 ingredients using food processor or stick blender.
- Add cheese and pulse again until blended.
- 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.
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!)
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
