Homemade Basil and Pinenut Pesto by Kandy Shepherd

Pesto packed in glass jars

It’s summer time DownUnder and I’m fortunate to have lots of basil growing in my garden. It’s time to make pesto! My family loves pesto used as a pungent, tasty pasta

sauce, or added by the teaspoon to soups, casseroles and vegetable dishes. As homemade pesto only lasts up to a week in the refrigerator, I tend to freeze my pesto in small quantities to add a taste of my summer garden to our meals all year around. To make pesto is easy, if a tad fussy, and worth it as we find my pesto so much tastier than the store bought jars!

Fresh, homemade pesto

Homemade Basil and Pinenut Pesto

YOU WILL NEED

(Note: I use Australian standard size measuring cups but recipe works as well with US measuring cups)

1/3 cup pinenuts

½ cup Parmesan cheese (cut from block cheese)

2 cups fresh basil leaves, tightly packed

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 medium cloves of garlic, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

1.      Wash and dry containers for storing your pesto.

2.      Lightly toast pinenuts (in oven on baking tray or in dry frypan over medium heat on stove top) until they begin to change colour to golden. Immediately take off heat and place in a container to cool.

3.      Put cheese in food processor and pulse until consistency of large crumbs. Remove from processor and set aside.

4.      Rinse basil leaves in cold water and dry. (Pat dry with paper towels or spin in salad spinner.)

5.      Place leaves and toasted pinenuts in blender and pulse until leaves are roughly chopped. Add olive oil and pulse until the mixture is smooth. Scrape down sides of blender as needed.

6.      Add the cheese, garlic salt and pepper and pulse until blended. Scrape down sides of blender as needed.

Basil leaves, grated Parmesan and toasted pinenuts

7.      Transfer pesto into prepared containers and seal with lids. Pesto will keep fresh for a about a week in the refrigerator. If you want to keep it any longer, it’s a good idea to freeze it. (Makes about three cups of pesto.)

TIPS

• Keep an eye on pinenuts when toasting them, they can turn colour very quickly and burn. Stir during the process and when done immediately remove not just from the heat but also from the pan/tray as they can keep on cooking and can burn.

• Adjust the amount of garlic to suit your taste and the pungency of the garlic you’re using.

• You may notice a film of oil forming on the top of the pesto as you pack it in containers. This is a good thing as it helps preserve the pesto and keep it from discolouring.

Basil growing in my garden

• You can freeze your pesto in ice cube trays for a small sized serve. When frozen eject from trays and put plastic bags, seal and keep in freezer. (Or be lazy like I am and keep them in the tray covered with plastic wrap and squeeze out as required.)

• This recipe is easily doubled, depending on the size of your food processor bowl.

 

Freshly picked basil

Garlic from my garden

In ice cube tray ready to freeze

Kandy Shepherd is a multi-published, award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends. She likes to travel whenever she can!

Visit Kandy Shepherd at her Website.

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Kandy Shepherd has a new book out this month!

Second Chance with the Single Dad

From long-lost friends…

To newfound family?

Georgia and Wil were best friends until he married and disappeared from her life. Now he’s back, asking Georgia to forget the past and help him secure his future—the daughter he never knew he had! Georgia’s heart goes out to new dad Wil, but there’s an uncharted chemistry fizzing between them and she must protect her heart. Can they confront their unspoken attraction and finally become a family?

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