One of my favourite local pizza restaurants serves a bread basket with three dips: sundried tomato, tahini and pesto. While my sister and orangefoodie make sure to try every dip on the platter, I choose to fill myself up with the pita bread slices and pesto sauce. Sometimes I get so carried away nibbling on these that I end up eating barely a single slice of pizza!
Over the weekend, I tried making my own pesto for the first time. Dead easy! All you need to do is assemble all the ingredients and let the food processor do its job. Thanks to Deeba who mailed me basil seeds, I now have a couple of bountiful pots of basil. I can’t tell you how intensely fragrant home grown basil is compared to store bought. The heady aroma is almost intoxicating. Sometimes I find myself plucking a leaf just to rub it between my fingers and get hit by the sweet smell of basil. I hope you have access to fresh basil,and if you’d like, I’ll be happy to send you some seeds!
I used Ina Garten’s recipe as a base and I absolutely loved how it turned out. In fact, my family has been devouring the pesto as a condiment with every meal for the past few days. I also used part organic pine nut oil to accentuate the pine-nutty-ness of the pesto.
Adapted from: Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics
1/4th cup pine nuts
1/4th cup walnuts
6-9 cloves of garlic
1/2 – 1 tsp coarse sea salt
4 cups basil, washed and dried
1 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
3/4th cup olive oil
3/4th cup pine nut oil (or olive oil, if you don’t have pine nut oil)
- In a food processor, grind the walnut, pinenuts and garlic to a paste. Add the salt.
- Add the basil leaves and maybe a tiny little bit of oil or water for it to come together.
- Add the parmesan cheese.
- Now through the feed tube, pour in the oils until evenly blended.
- Transfer to a jar and serve and use as you like!
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
I love pesto! My absolute favorite is using arugula, it makes it a bit spicy.
Oh this pesto looks great – those basil leaves look so fresh and nice ! I must get some and plant them here…Have you tried a pesto pizza – u'll love it…
Gorgeous. How long does it stay in the fridge. The one I get from market has very small shelf life once I open the bottle. and can I skip pine nut oil ? I doubt if I get it here.
We liked the pesto at this place that Purplefoodie talks about so much that we ordered a pesto-based pizza a couple of times. It was surely worth a try. Adds a completely new dimension to pizzas!
- OrangeFoodie
Thank you so much!!! My hubby is a major Pesto fan and my attempts so far haven't really been very successful… Where can I get the pine nuts here in Mumbai? And which restaurant are you talking about?
Oh you can totally use all olive oil. I just indulged with the pinenut oil because I had it handy. Given that the pesto has substantial amount of oil, it should last about two weeks. But the green colour won't be as bright as more days pass by.
Hey Smita! I get my pine nuts from Alfa. But the problem is that they need to be shelled. Given that this requires just 1/4th cup, that's not so bad. I'm talking about Olio at Novotel in Juhu.. love their wood fired oven thin crust pizzas!
I adore home grow basil. I totally agree with you that its so much more fragrant than store bought!
pine nut oil! What an awesome idea!!! I'll have to try that the next time.
Hey love the colour of the pesto!and homegrown basil ..i love it..my basil is not very happy with the scorching heat here.its almost lifeless now.:( . will try it when I can find some basil leaves. nice clicks
Hello! I've been lurking for a few months now. I grew basil, too, though I was not a very good plant mommy, and turned it into pesto. I hand-chopped it (seriously, my arms were so sore). But I swear, that basil shrinks so much after the chopping and processing, that it ends up being not basil-y enough and too garlicky. I know, right? What kind of person AM I complain about garlic in pesto? Well, I digress. Your pesto looks great and I bet it tastes just as good, too.
Love, love, love making pesto at home and I agree with you about basil – homegrown is definitely the way to go!
We usually add pesto sauce to plain pasta & top it with grated cheese. Where can one get fresh basil in Mumbai?
Smita, shelled pine nuts are easily available in Mumbai in all supermarkets – Big Bazaar, Hypercity and also in any dry fruits store. Ask for "Chilgoza"
That pesto looks delicious and I absolutely love basil. I haven't tried growing it because I'm not very good at keeping things alive – your basil looks so fresh and perfect!
I love the vibrant colors in your pictures! Your pesto looks beautiful… I can't wait until I have some fresh basil in my garden so that I can make a giant batch!
Love pesto! I need to be making my own which is certain to be 10 times better than the jarred stuff.
~ingrid
Looks delicious!
I love homemade pesto. And yes pesto on bread, with pasta and with buffalo mozzarella…I love it all these ways.
Thank you so much for taking the time out to comment!
Any supermarket.
I've seen Ina make her pesto, but never have tried it. I do have a basil plant and think your idea of using pine nut oil is great!
Yum! There is nothing better than fresh pesto. Those other dips you talked about sound good too! And pesto pizzas are definitely my favorite with grilled chicken and lots of mozzarella. It's a great way to use leftover pesto!
I love making pesto at home…I make it sometimes with leftover cilantro that will go bad otherwise. Never bought pine nut oil though…curious to hear what it's used for.
Pesto sauce is my family's favourite. Just make Italian pesto bread using pesto sauce (http://food-4tots.com/2010/03/29/italian-pesto-bread/) Simply delicious! Btw, you have a great blog! Going to try out your garlicky baked fries soon. Looks absolutely gorgeous;)
Great recipe! My sister loves pesto and I think I should share this recipe with her.
Hey Shaheen,
I ve tried a lot of the stuff on your blog….my hazelnut extract is ready….vanilla one shud be soon : )
I tried making pesto today…it turned out to be delicious….sans the parmesan (was out of it!)….shall get some of it tomorrow and add it…
And hey…did u manage to find out abt whr cocoa is grown in India and if a tour of that place is possible??
Lots of Luck,
Sanah
Hey! Happy to know that you like the stuff you’ve tried from here.
No, I haven’t found any place that you could take a tour of.
Is it possible for u to give me some basil seeds to grow–I am at Andheri only
Love pesto….
I purchased ice cube trays just for my homemade pesto — I fill the trays, freeze and then pop them out and put them in a ziplock. Whenever I make homemade tomato sauce, I always put a couple of “cubes” in. It defrosts beautifully…. I also like to mix the pesto with some mayo and put it on sandwiches. This is the ONLY way my boys will eat their turkey sandwiches now….
I’m going to try this today – in fact just heading out shopping. Uzma, thanks for the tip of pine nuts being ‘chilgoza’; one of the reasons I’ve stayed away from making pesto has been sourcing the ingredients…not any more!!
While we’re on the subject, what’s the Hindi name for Basil – it’s not the regular Indian Tulsi, is it ?
Hey Mini, While tulsi is a type of basil (Holy basil) it’s not the kind that’s used in pesto sauce and general Italian cooking. It’s way too bitter for that.
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