Homemade basil pesto is so versatile and easy to make, and it’s a sauce you can use in so many ways. Made with simple ingredients, fresh, nutty homemade basil pesto is delicious on simple pasta, as a spread on a sandwich (like our Heirloom Tomato BLT with Pesto), on veggie sides (like our Pesto Green Beans) or even on pizza — the possibilities are endless! Rich, golden extra virgin olive oil and pine nuts give pesto its heft, garlic lends bite, and Parmesan brings plenty of umami, but fresh basil is the defining flavor of this basic pesto recipe. Best of all, whipping up homemade pesto sauce couldn’t be easier because (though mortar and pestle is traditional) our pesto recipe is made quickly and easily in a food processor.
What Is Pesto?
Simple, seasonal, aromatic and with an excellent flavor-to-effort ratio—something as ingenious as this homemade pesto recipe could only be Italian in origin. Originating in Liguria, a coastal region of Italy, basil pesto sauce is most strongly associated with the port city of Genoa. It’s fitting that such a summery sauce hails from Italian riviera, since it pairs beautifully with fish and seafood.
Pesto Ingredients
Basil: Sweet, pungent and aromatic, pesto is a celebration of fresh basil. Pluck off any leaves that look like they’re browning or withering—just use the shiny, green, healthiest ones.
Cheese: Parmigiano-Reggiano! A cup of freshly grated Parmigiano sounds like a lot, but it only takes about 30 seconds to grate it, even by hand. Use the real Italian Parmigiano, if you can but domestic parmesan is fine in a pinch.
Extra virgin olive oil. Use a good quality extra virgin olive oil—the flavor of the oil really comes through with homemade pesto, so use something with a flavor you enjoy, something you’d dip bread into.
Fresh garlic: If you see that the garlic cloves are sprouting (look for a little green shoot coming through the middle of the clove) just remove that green sprout and only use the white part of the clove. According to the Italian nonna I learned this trick from, those pesky green sprouts can give off a bitter flavor, and can upset tummies.
Pine nuts: Taste your pine nuts (they have a high fat content and so can easily go rancid) before adding them to your food processor, but no need to toast them.
How To Make Pesto Sauce
Gather your pesto ingredients.
Put everything (except for the olive oil) into the bowl of a food processor.
Pulse 20 times. You don’t want a completely smooth sauce — you want to keep a bit of texture to emulate classic basil pesto (which would be traditionally made in a mortar and pestle).
Slowly pour in the olive oil, with the food processor running.
Pesto Variations
Once you get the idea of how to make classic homemade basil pesto — which is the original, classic recipe — you can get a little creative. A few variations we’ve tried and loved are:
How To Use Homemade Pesto:
A slather or spoonful of simple basil pesto makes just about anything taste better. We love to use homemade pesto on:
Pesto pasta! Maybe the most classic use. Simply cook the pasta of your choice until it’s al dente (just done) and toss with pesto. Our Pesto Spaghetti is an easy choice, and our Salmon Pasta with Homemade Pesto.
On a sandwich. Spread some homemade pesto on a simple turkey sandwich, and thank us later. Or, when tomato season hits, try it on an Heirloom Tomato BLT.
Or, in our Pesto Chicken Bruschetta it's a cheesy, delicious perfect low-carb way to enjoy this pesto recipe.
As a simple, healthy, delicious dressing for pasta salad, Potato Salad, or this delicious Arugula White Bean Salad with Pesto Chicken.
Eggs! Whip a spoonful of pesto into your eggs and then scramble them—turns out green eggs are delicious.
How To Freeze Pesto
There’s quite a bit of debate here in internet-land about how to best freeze pesto. Should you freeze it in ice cube trays, or on sheet pans? Should you just freeze the basil as-is, for making batches of future pesto? Our favorite method for freezing basil pesto is ice cube trays.
More Recipes With Pesto
Presto! Pesto Sauce!
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