How to make Pesto

Summer is here and so is my basil. I do not plant basil year round but some people do since it will grow in an indoor herb garden. For me, I grow it through the summer, harvesting when it needs to be trimmed, and then take it all down and harvest the end of the supply in October every year. The majority of the basil I grow is for pesto.

Pesto is a versatile sauce that can be made out of many different items. I have made spinach pesto, pumpkin pesto, and cilantro jalapeno pesto along with the standard basil pesto. They all have distinctive flavors and I have not found one yet that I do not like.

For me, I found pesto when I had issues with irritable bowel syndrome in my 20s. Tomato based sauces and alfredo sauce were taken out of my diet during that time. I will admit, though, I was also eating the Standard American Diet then and didn’t know much about healthy eating. Since then I have been able to eat tomato based sauces and tomatoes by themselves if I grow them or they come from a farmer’s market. The ones in the stores are picked green and forced to turn red with chemicals so they are more acidic than truly ripe tomatoes. But now I am off the track of where we are going.

The Mediterranean Diet has become one of the most popular eating styles lately because it has been linked to improved health. Pesto sauce is a part of the Mediterranean Diet with nuts, olive oil, and basil. It does not take much pesto to get the flavor so you really do not have to use much.

As for basil, there are many types out there. Each one adds their own flavor to the sauce. The type of basil most people think of when you talk about basil is the one pictured below. I use a combination of different types just to mix things up.

Pesto Recipe

4 cups basil

½ cup olive oil

1/3 cup pine nuts

2 cloves garlic

½ cup Parmesan or Pecorano Romano cheese

½-1 tsp salt

Blend all ingredients in food processor until smooth. I use ½ cup containers to separate – recipe makes about 1 cup.

You can top with a little olive oil but I do not. If not using it soon, freeze. Otherwise put in the refrigerator. I make huge batches of this in October and freeze it all. Then just pull out of the freezer and defrost in a tub of warm water before using. This is great with roasted vegetables, spaghetti squash, or pasta. Also, if you want to change up from your traditional pizza sauce, pesto is a great base to then add vegetables and cheese on top. Delicious! Enjoy!