Basil Pesto

sticky232, May 9, 1:59am
Has anyone made it bought little pottle at supermarket and it is expensive is it just basil leaves and oil minced to a paste

kirmag, May 9, 2:04am
Basil, pine nuts, olive oil and parmassen cheese.

ETA: ohhh and garlic if you are a garlic lover too.

geminisis, May 9, 7:03am
I make mine all the time, but use parsley as basil is normally pretty pricey and parsley grows like a weed around here.
I put in about a cup or more of parsley, stalks and all, some spinach or kale, a handful of nuts (pinenuts or walnuts or cashew), two big bulbs of garlic, a handful of parmesan (no other cheese will do), and about 1/3 cup olive oil. Then rock salt and pepper.
I live on this, it goes in everything and I swear thats why we dont get sick, parsley is great like that!
Dont be too precious about quantities, loosen it up with more oil if too 'chunky'. Enjoy!

nauru, May 9, 7:11am
Make it, it's way cheaper and so much better than shop bought. I use walnuts/cashews instead of pinenuts, just my preference. Last batch I made I used half basil, half rocket leaves, also added some parsley, it was so good.

lilyfield, May 9, 8:38am
I use sunflower seeds as nuts, cheap as.

joybells2, May 10, 6:44pm
I always make when in season but use cashews instead of pinenuts as they are too expensive for me, I started off using an Alison Holst recipe and just adapted it to suit.

buzzy110, Aug 10, 5:03pm
Yep. You don't have to use basil exclusively. I have a ton of kale and rocket so make a pesto out of a combination of kale, rocket and basil.

Edited to add - also toasted pine nuts, pumpkin seeds (sometimes), parmesan cheese, salt and EV olive oil.