How To Make Basil Pesto for Pasta
One way of using your fresh basil is by making pesto for your pasta. This basil pesto recipe for pasta uses fresh basil, pine nuts, garlic, parmesan cheese and olive oil. Make this in just a few minutes!
What with all the Basil we have grown in the greenhouse this year, it was time to make Pesto!!. The type we have grown is Crimson Basil and Thai Basil. The Thai Basil has more of an aniseed or fennel taste.
We planted our Basil seeds in April, and they were ready to be picked around the beginning of July onwards. You can get windowsill seeds or ones for the outdoors. The choice is yours. This was the first time we had made it, and I have to say this is better than what I had bought in the shops, so I had to share my homemade fresh basil pesto recipe.
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INGREDIENTS FOR PESTO
All you need is just a few simple ingredients to make this vegetarian pesto.
- 2 Packed cups of fresh basil
- 1/2 Cup of Parmesan Cheese
- 1/2 Cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1/3 Cup of Pine nuts
- 3 Garlic Cloves crushed.
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1/8 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
VEGAN PESTO FOR PASTA
To make this a vegan pesto, use vegan cheese or 3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast.
HOW TO MAKE PESTO
Making pesto is super easy.
Place Pine nuts, Cheese and Olive Oil in your food processor and whiz up to a smooth consistency then add your Basil leaves and seasoning and whiz up again. Simple!!
Store in sterilized jars and keep in the fridge for a week. Fresh pesto is the best!
TIPS FOR SERVING PESTO
Serve pesto at room temperature.
Add to your pasta dish as soon as the pasta is ready.
If adding to a soup, add the pesto when the soup is already cooked.
What meals do I have with Pesto?
We have it with pasta dishes, it just makes everything so morish! You only need to add about 2 teaspoons per serving to make it extra yummy. Try my Kohlrabi pasta bake, it’s so tasty!
You can also add it to soups to give them extra flavour, especially tomato soup.
I even got a couple of crackers and added it on top, omg it was so tasty I had to stop myself from eating it all.
Have it on your favourite bread or on your toast.
Pesto will go great with garlic bread. Super tasty!
Add it to my Garlic and Bacon pasta bake.
Alternative to Basil
As an alternative to Basil, you could use Rocket. It has a more peppery flavour but still tastes amazing. Try How To Make Wild Rocket Pesto.
Pesto For Pasta Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Fresh basil
- ½ Cup Parmesan Cheese
- ½ Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- ⅓ Cup Pine nuts
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ⅛ tsp Ground Black Pepper
- 3 Cloves of Garlic (crushed)
Instructions
- Place Pine nuts, Cheese and Olive Oil in your food processor and whiz up to a smooth consistency then add your Basil leaves and seasoning and whiz up again.
- Store in sterilsed jars and keep in the fridge for up to a week.
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