The Best Homemade Pesto

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The first time I ever tried pesto, I just knew I wasn't going to like it. How could something so green taste good? Well, thankfully, my misgivings were wrong and I ended up absolutely loving it!!

I grew up going to my aunt's house for a week each summer and it was always such a fun and unique experience. My mom and her sister couldn't have been more different if they had tried. For me, that meant getting to experience a wide variety of things that I wouldn't normally have the opportunity to do. My aunt lived most of her life as a "hippie", cultivating a thriving organic farm before they were cool. One of her staple crops was basil, which she sold at the farmers market where she lived and a local coop. That basil also went into her homemade pesto, which she served with just about everything. My first tasting of it was on homemade Amish spinach noodles. Green on green seemed pretty weird to me, but after I had the combo, I was in love.

Pesto was never part of the food I ate at home growing up, so I didn't really think much more about it (unless I was at my aunt's house), until I had moved out into my home and was in charge of all the cooking. We added pesto into our repertoire of foods pretty early on, but it was always the premade jarred stuff. If you've never had fresh pesto before, you might think this is ok, but it definitely doesn't compare. The closest I've ever gotten to a store-bought pesto tasting anything like fresh is the Kirkland brand from Costco...in case you're not interested in making your own.

Pesto really is so easy to make, though, I encourage you to try it out! Even if you're not interested in growing your own basil, it's readily available at most grocery stores these days. As for the other ingredients, they are pretty easy to find too...and can be subbed in different ways, depending on what you have in your fridge or pantry...or what you have access to at the store.

For this batch of pesto (I had already made a bunch about a month and a half ago), I wanted to use what we had on-hand, instead of buying anything, so I ended up using a mix of nuts. Waste not, want not! 

Honestly, most work of the whole process was stripping the leaves off the stems to be washed. Last time I made pesto, I washed the basil stems and all. This time around, I was trying to streamline things a bit, so I took the leaves off the stems and then washed. After they were rinsed, I wrapped the leaves in a towel to dry them as much as I could. If you've never used a FRUIT AND VEGGIE WASH, I can't recommend it enough! Even though we don't use any chemicals on our plants, it's good to know that I'm getting things as clean as possible before preparing.

What You'll Need to Make Pesto:

FOOD PROCESSOR OR BLENDER

MEASURING CUPS

MEASURING SPOONS

SILICONE MUFFIN PAN

SPATULA

Ingredients to Make Pesto:

2 cups fresh basil leaves (tightly packed)

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (finely grated) -- I do this a little differently for bulk pesto by cutting the cheese into chunks and letting the blender do the work.

1/4 cup pine nuts -- I mixed 1/2 pine nuts and 1/2 Marcona almonds

2 cloves garlic (minced) -- I add more because I love garlic! 

1-2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (depending on taste)

Salt to taste -- The cheese is very salty...so you may want to add more or less salt.

Steps to Make Pesto:

1. Add all ingredients to your blender
2. Run blender through a puree cycle. When it's done, use your spatula to scrape down the sides to make sure everything gets incorporated. Run puree cycle again.
3. If you're making a single batch, you can store that in the fridge for a couple of weeks in an airtight container. If you don't think you're going to use it all or are making a bulk batch like I did, spoon the pesto into SILICONE MOLDS and freeze. Once frozen, transfer them to a container or zip top bag to store long term. I prefer using a muffin pan because I want access to more pesto at a time, but a SILICONE ICE CUBE TRAY is a great option as well! 

It really is that easy!!

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Once you make pesto, there will be no going back to eating store bought. It really is easy to make...even in a bulk batch like I did...and the flavor is unmatched. We enjoy eating it as a sauce, a flavorful dip (add it to plain Greek yogurt), on eggs and noodles... If you freeze the pesto in ice cube trays, you can drop in one or two "cubes" into soup for extra flavor as well. I love finding ways to make cooking at home feel more special and homemade pesto is definitely a way to do that! 

If you decide to try making your own pesto at home, I'd love to see! Share to your INSTAGRAM and be sure to tag me!