Basil pesto

It’s that time of year when the basil is abundant. I always grow basil as it’s pretty easy to grow and I just love it. Basil can be used in salads – raw, and in cooking. I also love it as a base ingredient for pesto. As my basil was starting to flower I had to pick a lot of it to make into pesto. Because I’ve now trimmed my basil I’ll get more life out of the plants instead of going all woody.

Basil

The first time I made this pesto I followed some recipe or other but now I know the base ingredients I just put them all into the ancient food processor I have to blend.

The ingredients are:

  • fresh basil (of course)
  • pine nuts (I’ve also used walnuts and not noticed any real difference)
  • fresh garlic
  • olive oil
  • parmesan cheese

I don’t use set amounts but just keep blending and adding ingredients till it looks just about like pesto should. So that’s my really basic and bare-bones recipe.

If you’re after something a bit more precise and variations to the theme try this.

After I made my pesto I cooked up some pasta, put some leftover roast chicken and some of my fresh pesto and had a delicious meal. Mmmm, mmmm.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

10 Comments

  • January 16, 2008 - 11:41 am | Permalink

    I love basil (we’ve got umpteen plants in The Spouse of The House’s herb garden), I’ll give your recipe a whirl. Thanks :)

  • January 16, 2008 - 4:40 pm | Permalink

    I love basil and basil pesto is delicious. In fact I’m off to cut some right now to put on home made pizza tonight :) )

  • January 17, 2008 - 2:35 pm | Permalink

    Ah – we get an really good basil crop here also, and pesto is a mainstay!!!

  • January 17, 2008 - 2:48 pm | Permalink

    I’m not sure about the taste of basil… I do like pesto sometimes. It sounds nice, your pasta dish.

  • January 18, 2008 - 5:28 pm | Permalink

    sounds great – how long does it last – my – ‘potluck recipe ‘pesto went mouldy – grew some penicillin .
    I want a herb and little vegie garden to I am looking for tips.

  • January 18, 2008 - 9:13 pm | Permalink

    Mine lasts a week or two, but when you make it, put it in little containers that can go in the freezer. That way you have pesto when you want.

  • January 20, 2008 - 12:10 am | Permalink

    My mom has a huge herb garden and I love her pesto…basil is such a rich herb…looks like you and JJ are having a great summer…that tent looks great, and I would be so proud of him too for staying in it all night!!!

  • January 20, 2008 - 8:27 am | Permalink

    Tried it on tuna steaks last night -fabulous!
    Mentioned it in a recipe today ;)

  • Pingback: Barmus » Blog Archive » All Women Blogging Carnival

  • January 23, 2008 - 6:44 am | Permalink

    I love basil and can’t wait until I get my vegie garden happening. I have already got some huge pots ready for my herbs. Your pesto recipe sounds good. I have bookmarked it to try it out as soon as my basil grows :)

  • Comments are closed.