Homemade Pesto Recipe – An easy recipe for homemade basil pesto! Pesto is made from a mixture of fresh basil, garlic, cheese, nuts, and olive oil. Find out how to make it at home!
I absolutely adore pesto and all of that super fresh, garlicky, and cheesy flavor! It’s something I especially start to crave more once the weather gets warm. While store-bought pesto can taste great, absolutely nothing compares to the flavor of homemade!
If you haven’t made basil pesto before, you should know that it comes together in about 10 minutes or less! I am including a few “in process” photos today to show you how I make it.
For this recipe, it is best if you use your food processor. However, if you only have a blender that should work too.
Basil Pesto Recipe:
Pesto really only takes a handful of ingredients. Some of them like the olive oil, salt, and pepper you will generally already have in your cabinet.
The remaining ingredients are basil, garlic, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese.
You will want to use the freshest basil that you can find for best flavor. This becomes easier during spring and summer when you can find it at your local farmer’s markets. But, I am always able to find decent basil year-round in the produce section of our grocery store.
For the garlic, it is best to use fresh. I always have a jar of pre-minced garlic on hand, but, for this recipe be sure to use to full cloves of garlic.
Pine nuts are my preference for pesto. However, it is great with walnuts as well if you have some on hand!
The parmesan cheese should also be freshly grated off the block if possible. You can use pre-shredded if that’s what you have. I don’t recommend using the bottle of grated parmesan for this recipe.
How to Make Pesto:
Making pesto in the food processor is a snap!
You will want to make sure you remove the stems from your basil first. Then, add the leaves to the bowl of your food processor.
Next, add your two peeled garlic cloves, along with the pine nuts, cheese, salt, and pepper.
Place the lid on your food processor, lock into place, and give your basil mixture about five good pulses. After you pulse a few times you will notice that you have a very coarse mixture of finely chopped basil, garlic, pine nuts, and cheese as you can see below.
The next step is to add your olive oil. You will want to add that in while the food processor is running. Simply turn the processor on low, and slowly stream the olive oil right into the basil mixture.
Once you have added all of the olive oil, go ahead and turn your food processor to high. Allow it to run for about 30 seconds.
Now, your pesto is ready to serve! Be sure to give it a taste, and add additional salt and pepper if necessary.
Your pesto will be best stored in a small bowl with plastic wrap over the top. The plastic wrap should touch the top of the pesto. This will keep it from getting too much air and turning brown.
Enjoy!
~Nichole
Homemade Pesto Recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
- Add the fresh basil leaves, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper to the bowl of your food processor. Pulse 5 times until a coarse mixture forms.
- Turn the food processor on low and slowly add the olive oil in a steady stream.
- Serve the pesto immediately or store in a small bowl covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
My first time making pesto. I used an extra clove of garlic and walnuts instead of pine nuts. It is delicious! Will definitely make this again.
Thank you for sharing.
I made the pesto exactly as written and it’s wonderful. Tastes so much better than store made. This is a keeper. So easy too. Thank you.
Great tasting pesto! Good portions
The best pesto I’ve made. My first time I made the recipe as is, for my second time, I doubled it! So delish. Thanks for posting this.
My husband is severely allergic to pine nuts. I love pesto but have never been able to make it. Could I substitute almonds for the pine nuts? If not what else could I use? Help!!!!
Hi! Yes, I think an almond version would be great! 🙂
Macadamia nuts work great, too.
Great idea!!! Thank you!
We used walnuts and it turned out great as well.
I’ve also used pepitos (green young pumpkin seeds) and it’s AMAZING!!!!
I prefer walnuts but sunflower seeds work well also.
Cashews are soft and work as a great alternative.
I’ve made pesto with sunflower seeds and actually prefer it to pine nuts!
Sharon use WALNUTS
This is such a awesome and easy recipe !! I made so.e last night and it was the best EVER !!! Thank you so much !! I will most definitely save this recipe and be making much MUCH MORE !! ❤?❤?❤?❤?❤
It can be frozen
I freeze mine all the time! I put a thin layer of olive oil on top.
I love pesto. Anyway you can give it to me I will definitely eat it. I cannot wait to try this one and see how much I like this one too.
I made this recipe and it was okay but I thought that it needed a little bit more flavor; it was kinda bland. Any suggestions?
Add some more garlic, toast your pine nuts prior, and a bit of lemon zest.
quick question how long should pesto last in refrigerator
It will be good for 5 days in the refrigerator 🙂
How does one measure 2 cups of basil leaves? finely chopped leaves? what would that be in grams?
I wonder the same however I used a 2 oz. container of it from the grocery store and it was perfect. However I tweak all recipes so I added the other stuff and then added more to taste. But that’s where I started anyway.
Hi Nicole, very good (and easy) pesto recipe! I seasoned up a couple boneless/skinless chicken breasts w/ lemon pepper & garlic, browned them in a skillet, sliced into chunks, then added them to a pound of penne wrapped in your pesto……..deliciousness!