We are lucky enough to have had a bumper growth of basil in the little planter on our windowsill this year. It grows so tall so fast that most of the time we give it away as fast as it grows. This afternoon, we decided to make pesto from it. The below recipe is from elise.com, with my notes underneath about what I added for our version.
Ingredients
- 2 cups of packed fresh basil leaves
- 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup pine nuts
- 3-4 medium minced garlic cloves
- salt
- pepper
Method
- Put the basil and the pine nuts in the blender and pulse 2-3 times.
- Add the garlic and pulse a few more times.
- Slowly add the olive oil in while you pulse. Make sure you stop every once in a while to scrape down the sides of the blender with a rubber spatula.
- Add the grated parmesan and pulse again 2-3 times.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Assess your final consistency. I like pesto to be very nutty/chunky and it to not be too heavy on the basil side so we added both more pine nuts and more cheese.
- Add a bit more oil for good measure if you have added extra of the ingredients.
- Store in a bowl or jar…and of course, enjoy! My favourite way to eat this is with ciabatta…mmmmmm.