Pesto - A Basic Guide
Created by JostLori on June 8, 2014
- Servings: 8
- Prep Time: 10m
- Cook Time: 0m
- Recipe #12733
Ingredients
- 6 large garlic cloves, peeled
- 3/4 cups pine nuts (lightly toasted and cooled)
- 3 cups basil leaves, packed
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated (freshly grated is awesome!)
- 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- 1/2 cup oil (olive oil)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
How to Make
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Step 1: Place garlic cloves, pine nuts, basil and parmesan cheese in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until roughly chopped, then process until it's the consistency you want. I like mine to have some texture.
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Step 2: Add the lemon juice and olive oil, process briefly until combined.
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Step 3: Remove to a bowl, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Depending on your cheese, it may not require any salt at all. Adjust olive oil as you see fit.
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Note: I don't add too much olive oil at this point, since I don't know how I'm going to use it. If it needs more oil, it can be added when you use it. It's also more compact for freezing.
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Step 4: If not being used immediately, it freezes beautifully. You can place in ice cube trays, then into a bag when cubes have frozen. Or simply put meal-sized portions into snack-sized baggies and freeze.
Nutritional Facts
- Serving Size: 1 (80.3 g)
- Calories 316.8
- Total Fat - 29.3 g
- Saturated Fat - 4.1 g
- Cholesterol - 4 mg
- Sodium - 234.6 mg
- Total Carbohydrate - 12.5 g
- Dietary Fiber - 3 g
- Sugars - 0.6 g
- Protein - 5.9 g
- Calcium - 90.8 mg
- Iron - 2 mg
- Vitamin C - 44.6 mg
- Thiamin - 0.1 mg