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Easy Basil Pesto

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5 from 2 reviews

The easiest basil pesto recipe you’ll find on the internet! This recipe makes about 3/4 of a cup size batch but is super easy to scale up or down depending on how much basil you’ve got on your hands!

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 cup loosely packed basil
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1/4 cup toasted walnuts
  • 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • Kosher salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Add basil, garlic, walnuts, Parmesan, oil and a large pinch of salt to a food processor or a smoothie container of a high speed blender
  2. Blend or process until well minced and smooth. 
  3. Season to taste with salt and enjoy!

Equipment

Notes

Obviously, use fresh basil! The fresher the better, but living in Wisconsin I realize that you can’t always pop out to the garden to grab a fresh bunch. Luckily your local grocery store and even Amazon has some great fresh options too!

Always use fresh garlic! You have no idea how long that jar of minced garlic has been sitting on the shelf. You don’t even have to mince the clove of garlic in this recipe either – just toss the whole clove right in!

Use a good olive oil! You can learn more about what makes a good olive oil in my Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar Bread Dip post. But basically you’re looking for an olive oil that is cold pressed and organic. This one is my fave.

Use your favorite nut! I like to use walnuts or pecans for this pesto because I always have them on hand. Most recipes use pine nuts but they are super expensive and I find that they don’t make a huge difference in the end result. Use what you’ve got in the pantry – just make sure they haven’t gone rancid (which can happen really easily with nuts).