Pesto Sauce is so easy to make and homemade pesto tastes way better than storebought. This Basil Pesto recipe is fantastic with pasta, chicken, or sandwiches.
Ingredients for Basil Pesto
Most of the ingredients needed for this pesto recipe are things you probably already have on hand. If you don’t have basil growing in your garden, it’s best to buy it fresh the day you are making the sauce.
Basil – use fresh basil leaves. The common basil leaves for pesto are large leaf basil, sweet basil, or genovese basil
Parmesan cheese – shredded
Extra virgin olive oil – use the best quality oil you can source
Pine nuts – these are typical for pesto, but we have substituted with walnuts with great results
Garlic cloves – we use 2 large cloves
Lemon juice – use freshly squeezed juice from 1 large or 2 smaller lemons. Do not use lemon juice concentrate.
Salt & Pepper – can be added to taste
Can I substitute Pine Nuts?
While traditional pesto sauce is made with pine nuts, you can certainly replace the pine nuts with a less expensive nut such as walnuts, or blanched almonds which work great.
Pro Tip: To get the most flavor out of your pine nuts, toast them on a dry skillet over medium heat, tossing often until golden and fragrant then cool before using in the recipe.
What Type of Basil Should I Use?
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