It was unseasonably warm and sunny in my part of the UK yesterday, so this called for some summer-style cooking. There’s no denying that pesto sauce in a jar is very handy and perfectly good, but for something a little more special, the fresh home-made variety is far superior. And it’s so quick, you can make it in the time it takes to cook some pasta – then just stir it into the hot pasta and voila!
This quantity makes about what you need for two people. You can make more and store it in a jar in the fridge, topped with some extra olive oil, for up to two weeks, but I prefer to just make what I can use at the time.
WHAT YOU NEED:
– 25g pine nuts
– 1 packed cup fresh basil leaves
– 25g finely grated parmesan (buy it in block and grate it yourself, I insist on that!)
– 75ml extra virgin olive oil (you need good quality olive oil for this, there’s proportionally a lot of it in pesto sauce so a cheaper oil could lend an unpleasant taste to the sauce)
– 1 garlic clove, minced
– salt and freshly ground black pepper
WHAT YOU DO:
1. Place the pine nuts in a dry frying pan and toast gently over a low heat, shaking the pan regularly. You want to them to just turn a little golden, not get too toasted, so keep an eye, they only take a couple of minutes.
2. Place pine nuts in a food processor along with the other ingredients, apart from the salt and pepper, and whizz until desired consistency is reached, it’s good to keep a bit of texture in there. Alternatively, you can make it in a pestle and mortar by smooshing the pine nuts and garlic together and then stirring that well into the other ingredients.
3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Easy! And the fresh fragrance of the basil leaves and garlic is wonderful…
Sugarness...recipes from me to you 
It’s always nice to make our own sauces when we can. That way we know what’s going into them. And they taste better too. Bet this is yummy. 🙂
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I try and make a lot more stuff myself these days than I used to. It doesn’t necessarily take much longer, often I find it’s just about being more organised when shopping!
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This is awesome. I have the fragrance of basil stuck in my head. Love it. In fact, I just made some a couple of days ago. Do great minds think alike of what? 😮
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Basil has a lovely fragrance doesn’t it, one of my favourites! It must be because of you then that I suddenly had the urge to make pesto, I wondered where that thought came from! 🙂
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😀 😀 😀
Are little fairies and goblins of Halloween still hanging around? Maybe it was them.
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Looks both easy and delicious, a favorite combination!
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Yep, what’s not to like?
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I love pesto, and I wonder if I could get my husband to go for this at least once…. He’s not as big a fan as I am.
And there’s absolutely no other way to buy Parmesan cheese! That shredded “stuff” in the green cans is not real!
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Yes, see if you can change his mind about pesto with a nice fresh homemade one!
I agree about parmesan, but the fact that the other stuff is still on sale shows that not everyone agrees with us!
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What a pretty sauce. I love pesto, and this looks easy to make!
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Yes, super easy and really so much nicer than pesto in a jar (don’t get me wrong, I use the jar stuff too most of the time!).
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