Description
This basil pesto recipe is so easy to make. It’s the perfect sauce to keep on hand for drizzling onto eggs, chicken, or veggies. Use it as the sauce for pizza, pasta, or spread it onto sandwiches. It can elevate any dish.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup toasted almonds (see nots for other nut options)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1.5 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 1/2 cups fresh basil, packed
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves, packed
- Juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- toast your nuts: If you haven’t already, toast your almonds to bring out their flavor. You can skip this step if you happen to be using already toasted, store-bought nuts. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread the nuts onto a small rimmed baking sheet. Toast the nuts for 8 minutes, toss, and toast another 2 to 3 minutes, or until the nuts are fragrant, and have browned. Be careful not to burn the nuts. Allow them to cool completely before continuing the recipe. This step can be done in advance, if needed.
- Pulse together the hearty ingredients: To the bowl of a food processor, add the toasted, and cooled almonds, garlic cloves, parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Pulse until mostly broken down into small pieces.
- Add the herbs: Next, add the basil, parsley, and juice of 1/2 lemon. Pulse until the herbs have broken down into small pieces (see photo in post). You may need to scrape the sides once or twice.
- Stream in the oil: While the motor of the food processor is running, slowly stream the oil into the pesto until all of the oil has been added. Scrape down the sides, and pulse one or two more times to fully combine. The pesto should be thick, creamy, and small bits of the nuts, and cheese should remain. At this point, taste the pesto and adjust the seasonings, as needed. Depending on how juicy the lemon is, you may want to add the other half of the lemon juice. You can also add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water, if you want your pesto to be a little thinner. I find this to be ideal when I am using the pesto as a sauce on pasta, or as a dip.
- To serve: You can use pesto in so many ways. Spread it on sandwiches, wraps, use it as the sauce on pizza, use it as the sauce for pasta, serve it on a cheese platter, dollop it on top of scrambled eggs, or on top of an omelet, spread it onto fish, chicken, or seafood. The possibilities are endless for ways you can use pesto.
- To store: Pesto will last up to 2 weeks in the fridge, so it can be made in advance. Allow the pesto to sit at room temp for 15 minutes to allow the oil to soften before using. Or, run the pesto under warm water. I like to store it in a mason jar. If you’re worried about it browning (which, it won’t as much with the parsley in there), you can add a thin layer of olive oil on top of the pesto to prevent oxidation.
- To freeze: You can freeze the pesto for up to 3 months. You can either freeze it in the mason jar, or freeze them into ice cube trays, then store in a ziplock bag. Then you can allow a few cubes of pesto to defrost and use it however you want.
Notes
A note on ingredients: pesto only has a few ingredients, so use the highest quality, and freshest ingredients you can. Try to use the freshest herbs you can get (if you grow them yourself, that’s even better). Make sure to use a good quality, fruity olive oil, along with a high quality parmesan cheese from the deli counter (not from the pizza aisle). Using quality ingredients will make all the difference in how good your pesto is.
nut options: Traditionally pine nuts are used in pesto. You can easily use those, if you want. But, they are really expensive, so I most often use almonds. You can easily swap the almonds for walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, or sunflower seeds with varying results.
toasting nuts: On occasion, when I am short on time I will skip toasting my nuts and the pesto is still really good. However, if I was making the pesto to serve to guests, or share with others, I would highly recommend toasting any nuts or seeds you use, it really elevates the flavor.
parsley options: I like to use a little parsley with the basil because it keeps the pesto looking green as the basil oxidizes -plus, it tastes good. You could also use arugula, or mint, with varying results. I personally recommend the parsley. Keep in mind that the pesto will darken in color if you cook with it, which is okay.
vegan/dairy free option: If you want this pesto to be dairy free/vegan you can swap the 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese for 2 to 3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast (taste as you go), for that cheesy flavor.
