Homemade basil pesto tossed with your favorite pasta
is an easy and delicious dinner!
As summertime gardens wind down, you may find yourself with an abundance of basil! Or, because it’s 2020, it may snow the Tuesday after Labor Day forcing you to make some hard decisions about how to shut down your garden! True story for those of us living in Colorado.
I decided that my basil plant probably would not survive the storm, so I picked it all before the snow (It actually came back for a bit post-snow, but didn’t fully recover). Since I had quite a bit of basil which made a decent amount of pesto, I froze an ice cube tray’s worth so I’ll have delicious, fresh pesto this fall and winter!
If your basil is fresh from the garden, you’ll have to process the basil, removing the leaves from the stem. I was able to get 4 cups of basil from our medium sized basil plant, as each of these piles is 2 cups each. I also blanched the basil before adding to the pesto to keep it’s bright green color.
To blanch basil, bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Add in basil leaves for 15-30 seconds, then remove with a strainer and immediately dunk in an ice bath (bowl of cold water with ice cubes).
I toasted the pine nuts in a dry skillet until they were lightly browned and toasted to bring out their flavor for this classic pesto. And, it probably goes without saying, but take the time to freshly grate your own parmesan cheese. Go for a high quality cheese since there’s only a few ingredients.
Remember the food processor you registered for you may or may not use? Now is the time to use it! It’s time to dig out the small bowl attachment and little blade to get the best blend action. I have not made pesto in anything but a food processor and I think a blender may be a bit aggressive for pesto.
You’ll add the basil, pine nuts and garlic in first and give them a few pulses to get things incorporated. Next, turn run your food processor and slowly drizzle in the olive oil while motor is running.
Add in the cheese and pulse a few more times to give everything a chance to mingle in the bowl. Add a healthy squeeze of lemon juice, and pulse one more time to get the lemon juice worked into the pesto. The lemon juice really brightens the flavor and is great if you plan to freeze any of your batch. When you’re done, it should like somewhat like the photo below.
Your pesto is ready to be tossed with pasta, added to mayo or dalloped on a pizza! As mentioned before, you can also spoon it into an empty ice cube tray or mini muffin tin to create cubes or pucks of fresh pesto to enjoy this fall and winter. Once your cubes/pucks are frozen, remove from their tray and store in a ziplock or reusable storage bag. Frozen pesto keeps about 6 months.
In the photo below, I’ve tossed fresh pesto with premade ravioli. Save a little pasta water to loosen up the pesto if needed. Enjoy!
Homemade Basil Pesto
Turn end-of-season basil into delicious homemade pesto!
Ingredients
- 2 cups basil leaves, fresh, de-stemmed
- 2 TBS pine nuts
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- big squeeze of lemon juice
- Kosher salt to taste
Instructions
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Toast your pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium-low heat until they are golden and toasted. Remove from heat immediately and watch pan as toasting as they burn quickly.
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Blanch your basil by dropping handfuls of basil in a pot of boiling water. Remove after 15-30 seconds and immediately place in ice bath (large bowl of cold water with ice cubes).
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Insert small bowl attachment into food processor and add small blade.
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Add basil, pine nuts and garlic to the food processor and pulse a few times to incorporate ingredients.
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Add parmesan cheese and pulse a few more times again to incorporate the cheese.
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While food processor is running, drizzle in olive oil.
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Add a squeeze of lemon juice and pinch of salt. Pulse one more time to fully incorporate the lemon juice.
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Store refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 7 days. Use frozen pesto within 6 monhts.
Recipe Notes
- Use high-quality ingredients for best taste.
- You don't have to blanch your basil or toast your pine nuts, but the flavor and color will be better if you do!
- Use food processor with small bowl insert for best texture.
Other late-summer favorites from The Burnt Salad:
