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Basic Pesto Recipe and an Ode to Pesto

How much do we love pesto? We make it just about every week. So in that spirit, here’s an Ode to Pesto. (Remember the Ode to Hummus? This one’s similar, but with more leafy greens.)

Oh pesto how I love you so;

So many foods with which you go.

So many ways to make you mine.

Each one of them is just as fine.

Here’s the deal with pesto: You take the basic recipe (greens, oil, lemon juice, nuts if you like, cheese if you like, garlic, salt, puree it all together) and add it to just about any savory food…and the food will automatically taste better. (We haven’t tried it with sweets yet but now we’re intrigued.) Grilled chicken slightly dry? Add pesto and it’ll be transformative. Soup too bland? Add a little pesto. Salad making you yawn? Toss in some pesto. Tired of mayo and mustard on your sandwich? Spread some pesto on, and you’ll get the added bonus of a serving of greens.

Of course we also love pesto on roasted potatoes, dipped with crusty bread, and on grilled cheese. But you can’t beat good old pasta for one of the best ways to serve pesto. Toss it in when the pasta is freshly cooked and drained and add grated Parmesan on top – perfection!

This spring we’ve been looking beyond the basil by experimenting with all different types of greens. Kale makes great pesto, as does arugula (a little more peppery). If you don’t have quite enough greens to work with you can supplement with spinach, although the texture becomes a little thinner. For the nuts, we always love pine nuts but we’ve tried pistachios (amazing) and cashews (gives a much creamier texture). You can also experiment with fun add-ins like avocado for a super-creamy pesto.

This one is an avocado-kale pesto tossed with kalamata olives

Basic Pesto Recipe

Basic Pesto Recipe

A basic pesto recipe using fresh basil and pine nuts.

Course Condiment
Cuisine Italian
Keyword pesto
Prep Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 8

Ingredients

  • 2 cups basil leaves
  • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

  1. Place all ingredients in food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Add additional olive oil if needed; add additional salt to taste. Serve immediately or store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. If you want to freeze it, prepare it without the cheese and freeze it in cubes in the ice-cube tray. Thaw cubes as needed, add freshly grated cheese.

Will Kids Eat Pesto?

One question we get is, “It’s green – will kids actually eat it?” One way to go on this (although this is too late for many kids) is to just serve it as part of your regular rotation while the kids are too small to notice. They’ll think that spaghetti has a red sauce half the time and a green sauce the other half of the time. Another way to approach it is to mix it in with a traditional red sauce, tell them it has extra herbs and spices, and see how they like it, then gradually wean them away from the red. A third way is to let them try a teeny bit plain on a fork. (Our picky eater actually preferred it this way because it was nice and salty.) And you can always try this reasoning: “It’s an easier way to eat a salad!”

You can use pesto in so many great recipes. Check out these delicious ideas:

Heirloom Tomato Tart with Pesto

Tomato-Pesto Frittata

Roasted Carrots with Walnut-Arugula Pesto

…Or just add it to your favorite sandwich to transform it into something amazing!

 

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