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Dressings & Sauces Recipes

Homemade Basil Pesto

15 minutes
1 cup

Homemade basil pesto is so simple to make with only 5 ingredients that you'll kick yourself for not trying to make it sooner!

Homemade Basil Pesto
Homemade basil pesto is so simple to make with only 5 ingredients that you'll kick yourself for not trying to make it sooner!
Homemade Basil Pesto

I love basil pesto and usually always have a jar in the fridge or pantry.

When I’m feeling lazy and not much like making dinner, I’ll usually grill up some chicken, cook some pasta, and add the pesto for super simple pesto chicken pasta.

Like, no brainer. Right??

That is until my hubby told me he doesn’t like pesto. Uh, what? You don’t like pesto? How is that possible?

Now I know why he never at the super simple pasta dish that I would make and always claimed he wasn’t hungry.

Well, he lied.

Homemade Basil Pesto

I got a bug up my butt the other day and decided I wanted to make homemade basil pesto instead of buying a jar of it. Then I made my super simple pasta dish again. This time with the homemade pesto.

He actually ate the entire thing.

What is happening to the world? Haha

Well, it turns out that he actually likes pesto but it just has to be homemade. He doesn’t like the stuff that comes from the jar. For whatever reason he cannot explain he just doesn’t like the pre-made stuff.  Go figure.

He also loved this homemade basil pesto pizza that I made.

So here I am now hording all the basil and pine nuts so I can make all the homemade pesto. I literally could eat pesto on everything and now that I know he actually likes it, I’m going to keep making it.

Homemade Basil Pesto

It’s unbelievably simple to make and I’m not 100% sure why I never decided to make it homemade before. Story of my life though.

Always thought something was harder to do than it actually was and therefore decided not to even try.

It wasn’t until food blogging and wanting to learn how to cook more and better for my family that I have been venturing outside of my comfort zones and getting out of my own head.

So here you go. My version of homemade basil pesto. Which is probably not much different than anyone else’s… but whatevs.

Homemade Basil Pesto

Homemade Basil Pesto

5 from 1 vote
Homemade basil pesto is so simple to make with only 5 ingredients that you’ll kick yourself for not trying to make it sooner!
Yield 1 cup
Prep Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups fresh basil leaves
  • 1/3 cup pine nuts
  • 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/3 cup olive oil

Instructions
 

  • Add basil, pine nuts, cheese, and garlic to food processor. Add about 1/2 of the olive oil and begin to pulse. 
  • Slowly add remaining olive oil while pulsing. Scrape down sides of food processor and season with salt and pepper. 
  • Pulse again adding more olive oil, as needed, to reach desired consistency. 
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