I had no idea what pesto was, the first time I had pesto was in Seattle, WA. Visiting my friend’s sister who grow, overgrow basil in her yard. She always have jars of pesto in her house and she said “anything is better with pesto”. And I must say I totally agree with her statement. The thing about pesto, they go dark after few days, especially homemade ones. I tried to blanch the basil before hand to preserve the color and adding a layer of extra virgin olive oil on the top surface, but I mad them too much to be able to catch up finishing it in just few days.
But do not worry, they may look dark and not nice, but the taste is preserved. So I keep using it in my pasta, roasted potatoes, and my favorite is as a spread on a crusty toasty bread. Another tip, my personal one, I added way too much parmesan, sometimes my pesto looks yellow instead of green, but that is helping the color to stay the same LOL.
You can definitely use different type of nuts, I used roasted cashews and almonds before and they turned out great, very nutty flavors. I never use raw nuts and I actually never used the original recipe, using pine nuts. But yeah I never buy pesto from a store ever again now. My next goal is to successfully grow basil in my balcony, so pray for me guys.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic
2 cups basil leaves
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil -more for a smoother pesto
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
Instructions:
- In a food processor, combine the walnuts, garlic, salt, pepper, and pulse until well chopped. Add the basil and pulse until combined.
- With the food processor running, drizzle in the olive oil. Add the parmesan cheese and olive oil and pulse to combine. Add more olive oil for a smoother pesto.