Homemade Pesto

I am finally sharing this pesto recipe! I try to get at least one recipe up each week and I was pushing it this week! The real goal is to get 3 recipes up per week, but I occasionally let myself slip down to one during busier weeks! When the power went out on Tuesday, my blogging plan for the week kind of crumbled! I'm so glad to finally be sharing one of my favorite recipes ever!! I could eat pesto everyday and you wouldn't hear me complain once! I love versatile it is and I just never get sick of it!

My mom has been making this pesto recipe for years, and really, nothing compares! I have tried so many (I mean, probably hundreds) store bought and restaurant pestos and nothing has come close to being as good as this recipe! I love strong & flavorful pesto - lots of basil & lots of garlic makes my heart happy! Here is how we do pesto around here...

Start by picking and washing 2 cups of fresh basil. Everything will get combined in the food processor together, so once my basil is washed, I just toss it in the food processor.

Add 1/2 cup of pine nuts to the food processor. We buy pine nuts from Costco in large quantities and store them in the freezer until we are ready to use them. So, the pine nuts I used were frozen - I just tossed them right in! No need to defrost them!

Add 3 cloves of garlic and 1 cup of Parmesan cheese to the food processor. I started mixing the pesto a little after adding the garlic for no particular reason other than I was getting a little excited to see it all come together! You can wait to combine everything once the Parmesan is added.

Once the Parmesan is added, turn the food processor on and let it do its thing until the pesto is starting to look like a sauce.

I just had to look up the anatomy of a food processor to explain this next part - ha! Here is a picture that will hopefully keep us all on the same page:

While the food processor is running (and mixing the pesto) add 3/4 cups of extra virgin olive oil to the pusher of the food processor. The olive oil will fall through the little hole in the pusher and be gradually incorporated into the sauce! Does that make sense!? Let me know if you need further explanation!

1 batch of pesto makes about 2 cups of pesto sauce. I made 6 batches on Monday because it freezes so well! I packaged all of the pesto in little containers and froze them! They defrost well and make for such an easy dinner!

But, of course before stashing all of this pesto away in the freezer I made some for the Bean and I to have for lunch! I typically mix a little cream in with the pesto when I am mixing it into pasta! Some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and ground pepper on top make lunchtime perfection! :)

PESTO
yield: 2 cups of pesto

ingredients
2 cups fresh basil
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 cup Parmesan
3 cloves garlic
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

directions
1. Pick and wash 2 cups of fresh basil.
2. In the bowl of a food processor (not that I know food processor terminology, I'm going to flaunt it like crazy 😉) combine washed basil, pine nuts, Parmesan and garlic.
3. Once the pesto begins to resemble a sauce, pour the olive oil into the pusher of the food processor - it will fall through the hole of the pusher and be gradually incorporated into the sauce.
4. Remove the pesto from the food processor and serve it with pasta or package it to freeze and use at a later time.

How easy is that recipe!? It comes together so quickly and makes the most delicious sauce! See you tomorrow!