Fresh basil blended with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese, almonds, and lemon pepper to create a healthy and delicious basil pesto. Easy to make, this basil pesto is perfect on toast, with pasta, or as a dip.
Is pesto perfect for fall or what?
I love the taste of fresh basil. It has a distinctive fragrance that complements tons of food.
So it’s about time I made my own basil pesto to pair with some of my favorite foods. Pesto on bread, pesto in my pasta, pesto as a dip, pesto as a sauce for pizza. Just to name a few possibilities. =)
I could always buy a container of pesto from the local supermarket, but it’s not as fresh, and you can never tell what extra ingredients might have been added.
With a simple recipe such as this one, you know exactly what you’re adding to your sauce. Not only that, once you’re comfortable with making pesto, you can customize it to your liking. Like extra nuts? Toss more in. Like more citrus? Add lemon juice. Easy, right?
Normally, pesto is made in a food processor, but I actually made mine in a Magic Bullet
How can you make your own?
Add a cup of basil leaves, packed down as much as possible, into a food processor or blender. Next, pour extra virgin olive oil into the blender. If you’re not a fan of the taste of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Blend all of these ingredients together until the consistency is to your liking.
Serve the pesto with bread or pasta.
Enjoy!
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- 1 cup fresh basil leaves, packed
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil (or olive oil)
- ¼ cup grated parmesan
- 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
- ⅛ cup almond slivers (or pine nuts or walnuts), more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon lemon pepper
- Blend all the ingredients in a food processor or blender until the consistency is to your liking.
- Serve the fresh basil pesto with bread or pasta.
I’ve thrown together my own pesto to use with pasta, but it won’t compare to the REAL recipe you’ve presented. Thanks!
I love pesto pasta but i have never tried to make them. Well, i am so excited to try your recipe!
I hope you’ll like it, Cammal!
I love basil pesto! Always in my fridge 🙂
I hope you’ll like this version =)
Nice shots, Andrea.
Thanks, Rudy!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your fabulous recipe this week at Foodie Fridays.Hope to see you again tonight!
Blessings,
Shari
Thank you so much, Shari!
Your pesto recipe sounds lovely! I saw this on the Foodie Fridays link up! I would be delighted if you’d stop by http://picnicnz.blogspot.co.nz/ and added this to the Pure Blog Love link party too 🙂
Thanks, Nicole!I stopped by. Thanks for the invite!
Such wonderful pictures you have! What camera do you use? I love fresh basil pesto 🙂
Hi Alexandra, believe it or not, I use an iPhone 4 to take all these photos. lol
Yummmmmm….pesto….as classiccosmopolite says – — love the pesto in liguria….especially on pizza as you mention!!! HEAVENLY!
Thanks, Diana!
I will so gonna try this! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
You’re welcome! I hope you’ll like it!