Pesto Sauce
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Homemade pesto sauce is easy to whip up and delicious on just about everything—from pastas and pizzas to salads and sandwiches.
One of my favorite things about summer cooking is stepping out my back door to pick fresh herbs from my potted herb garden. It always amazes me how the tiny seedlings I plant in May grow into more herbs than I can possibly use up by August. When the basil is overflowing, it’s pesto time! Pesto, or pesto alla Genovese, is a vibrant, garlicky green sauce from Genoa, Italy. While the traditional method uses a mortar and pestle, these days, a food processor makes it a breeze. This versatile sauce is fantastic on everything—from pastas and pizzas to salads, vegetable soup, and sandwiches. What’s even better? It freezes like a dream, so you can enjoy a taste of summer all year long!
What You’ll Need To Make Pesto Sauce
Traditional pesto is made with garlic, nuts, salt, basil leaves, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and extra-virgin olive oil. It’s important to use top-quality ingredients, as the flavors really shine through.
For the cheese, be sure to use authentic Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy; domestic Parmesan is not the same thing. You can always tell if the cheese is authentic by looking at the rind, which is embossed with the name over and over. If the cheese is already grated, it should be labeled “Parmigiano-Reggiano,” not “Parmesan.”
For the nuts, I use walnuts instead of the more traditional pine nuts for a few reasons. First, I always seem to have walnuts in the house (pine nuts can be very pricey). Second, in recent years an increasing number of people, including me, have fallen prey to a bizarre problem with pine nuts called Pine Mouth Syndrome, a bitter, metallic taste in the mouth that develops a day or two after eating pine nuts. It can last for weeks and make eating or drinking anything very unpleasant. (You can use pecans or almonds, too.)
Step-by-Step Instructions
To begin, combine the walnuts and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped.
Add the basil leaves, salt, and pepper.
Process until finely chopped.
Then, with the food processor running, add the olive oil through the feed tube in a steady stream.
Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Process again until smooth, and that’s your pesto sauce.
How To Store & Freeze Pesto
Use the pesto immediately or store it in a tightly sealed jar or air-tight plastic container, covered with a thin layer of olive oil (this seals out the air and prevents the sauce from oxidizing, which would turn it an ugly brown color). It will keep in the refrigerator for about a week.
Pesto can also be frozen in an airtight container for up to 6 months. I suggest dividing it into the compartments of an ice cube tray and freezing. Once frozen, remove the cubes from the tray and put in a sealable plastic bag or airtight container. You can add the defrosted cubes to vegetable soup, pasta salad with pesto, zucchini noodles, pesto pizza, eggs, sandwiches, and baked potatoes.
Video Tutorial
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The Best Basic Pesto
Homemade pesto sauce is easy to whip up and delicious on just about everything—from pastas and pizzas to salads and sandwiches.
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup walnuts
- 2 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Instructions
- Place the walnuts and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process until coarsely chopped, about 10 seconds. Add the basil leaves, salt, and pepper and process until mixture resembles a paste, about 1 minute. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil through the feed tube and process until the pesto is thoroughly blended. Add the Parmesan and process a minute more. Use pesto immediately or store in a tightly sealed jar or air-tight plastic container, covered with a thin layer of olive oil (this seals out the air and prevents the pesto from oxidizing, which would turn it an ugly brown color). It will keep in the refrigerator for about a week.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: Pesto can be frozen in an airtight container for up to 6 months. You can also divide your prepared pesto into the compartments of an ice cube tray and freeze. Once it’s frozen, remove the pesto cubes from the tray and put in a sealable plastic bag or airtight container. You can add the defrosted pesto cubes to soups, pasta dishes, eggs, sandwiches, and potatoes.
Nutrition Information
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- Serving size: 2 Tbsp.
- Calories: 159
- Fat: 17 g
- Saturated fat: 3 g
- Carbohydrates: 1 g
- Sugar: 0 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Sodium: 161 mg
- Cholesterol: 4 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Gluten-Free Adaptable Note
To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you're following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.
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Fantastic recipe! I didn’t have much basil on hand and so I halved it (and had to fudge the amount of parmesan, too), and it was still delicious. So quick and easy, thank you!
Loved it! Easy to follow directions, small enough units, & turned out excellent.
After visiting Liguria, Italy (home of REAL pesto) I have searched to find something I could make at home that tasted the same. BOOM! Here it is. Thank you, Jenn, for this amazing and oh-so-simple recipe. It doesn’t take 5 minutes to make this mouth-watering and healthy addition to pasta, sauces, and my favorite: add it to the mayo on your BLT for a classy step up… yum.
I usually make enough for one meal and put the left-overs in an ice cube tray and freeze it… I’ve found numerous truly great recipes on your site, and I appreciate you!
After years of delaying too long, I was so proud to finally remember to harvest the basil before the cold weather starts. But, I forgot to check the pantry and ended up a bit short on olive oil and Parmesan in the triple batch of pesto with walnuts. No worries! It is delicious with a wonderful texture and consistency. As for the comments about bitterness, sometimes raw garlic can be bitter. I also had two varieties of basil and one was definitely more bitter all summer than the other. That one literally did not make the cut for this recipe. Oh, and I can’t remember the last time we had an ice cube tray, so I used the mini cupcake pan and mini donut pans to freeze the batches. Perfect size!
This is a simple but excellent pesto recipe. Thanks for sharing another wonderful recipe Jen!
This is the best ever pesto ….. our basil plants were lovely this year and we have made seven batches ….. some for us, some for family. Freezing in the trays is a great tip. Thanks
I followed this exactly and it was too salty, too garlicky and too oily for us. Next time, I will put 1/4 tsp salt or even less, half the oil, and only half a garlic clove.
Perfect proportions of ingredients. Just like Nonna used to make… really!
Just made my first ever batch of pesto to be used in another recipe I’m making for dinner – this turned out amazing! I was looking for a basic pesto recipe that used walnuts, and this one worked wonderfully.
Outstanding Recipe! Pesto was so yummy, I could just lick the jar. The fresh basil leaves from my garden found a perfect place! Other than pasta and pizza topping, what else can I use the pesto for?
Hi Prajakta, Glad you liked it! Pesto is also nice stirred into or dolloped on top of soup like in this recipe. It’s also great spread onto bread for sandwiches or grilled cheese. You can also freeze pesto for future use if you have more than you can use now.