Serves: 280 mL, just over 1 cup pesto (about 4-6 serves with pasta)
Prep time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
113 g (4 oz) large-leaf basil (~210 g / 7.4 oz when leaves are attached to stems)
1-2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup combination of almonds, walnuts, and/or pine nuts
1/4 cup fresh parmesan, grated
1/8 tsp salt
My parents grew basil out in the backyard. They also occasionally grew broccoli (the beetle-infested broccoli is a story for another post... which will never happen because I don't cook with broccoli), and tomatoes (our German Shepard would take bites out of these suckers).
Anyway, I love basil. It reminds me of the luxury of cool grass on a hot summer day and most importantly of "pesto making day", which happened once a year. Our basil bushes loved growing, so "pesto making day" sometimes turned into "pesto making weekend". My parents would fill ice cube trays full of this pesto and freeze them into individual cubes to use up throughout the year. I often asked for shrimp (prawn) pesto on my birthday.
In my adult years, I have never (not once) ever found a pesto that compared to mom's pesto. They were too sweet, to vinegary, too oily, not the right variation of nuts, too smooth, too--you get the picture. Costco's pesto is the closest one I have tasted, but even that is, you guessed it, "too" something (salty).
So finally, after much deliberation in my own head about making someone else's magical recipe (like the banana bread story), I decided to make it for the first time. It was great! I noticed it was more garlicky than I remember, so I changed the recipe from 2 garlic cloves to 1-2 (depending on your preference). I would go for 2 again, I think.
In an attempt to increase my vegetable consumption, I opted for spaghetti squash spaghetti instead of traditional pasta. I topped it with tuna, which I highly recommend. The spaghetti squash was oddly a bit uncomfortably watery this time, so I advise pressing out any liquid before using it in this recipe. On day two, I noticed my ratio of pesto to squash was a bit uneven (too much sauce), so I boiled some fun pasta shapes (dinosaurs) and mixed them in with the spaghetti squash-pesto-tuna combo and that was an absolute delight.
Basil browning is a natural process and will not negatively affect the taste. When the pesto is thawed, the outside will appear darker than the inside--it's completely normal!
Ingredients:
113 g (4 oz) large-leaf basil (~210 g / 7.4 oz when leaves are attached to stems)
1-2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup combination of almonds, walnuts, and/or pine nuts
1/4 cup fresh parmesan, grated
1/8 tsp salt
Directions:
1. Rinse the basil and pat dry with a towel until most of the water is removed.
2. Blend all the ingredients in a food processor.
3. For any sauce not used right away, scoop into ice cube trays and freeze for later use.
4. Prior to using, remove pesto cubes and thaw to room temperature (or gently in microwave, or set the plastic bag into a bowl of hot water).
5. Serve pesto on anything: drizzled on roasted vegetables, in a pasta dish, etc...!
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