Homemade Pesto Recipe - The Salty Marshmallow (2024)

Homemade Pesto Recipe – An easy recipe for homemade basil pesto! Pesto is made from a mixture of fresh basil, garlic, cheese, nuts, and olive oil. Find out how to make it at home!

I absolutely adore pesto and all of that super fresh, garlicky, and cheesy flavor! It’s something I especially start to crave more once the weather gets warm. While store-boughtpesto can taste great, absolutely nothing compares to the flavor of homemade!

If you haven’t made basil pesto before, you should know that it comes together in about 10 minutes or less! I am including a few “in process” photos today to show you how I make it.

For this recipe, it is best if you use your food processor. However, if you only have a blender that should work too.

Basil Pesto Recipe:

Pesto really only takes a handful of ingredients. Some of them like the olive oil, salt, and pepper you will generally already have in your cabinet.

The remaining ingredients are basil, garlic, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese.

You will want to use the freshest basil that you can find for best flavor. This becomes easier during spring and summer when you can find it at your local farmer’s markets. But, I am always able to find decent basil year-round in the produce section of our grocery store.

For the garlic, it is best to use fresh. I always have a jar of pre-minced garlic on hand, but, for this recipe be sure to use to full cloves of garlic.

Pine nuts are my preference for pesto. However, it is great with walnuts as well if you have some on hand!

The parmesan cheese should also be freshly grated off the block if possible. You can use pre-shredded if that’s what you have. I don’t recommend using the bottle of grated parmesan for this recipe.

How to Make Pesto:

Making pesto in the food processor is a snap!

You will want to make sure you remove the stems from your basil first. Then, add the leaves to the bowl of your food processor.

Next, add your two peeled garlic cloves, along with the pine nuts, cheese, salt, and pepper.

Place the lid on your food processor, lock into place, and give your basil mixture about five good pulses. After you pulse a few times you will notice that you have a very coarse mixture of finely chopped basil, garlic, pine nuts, and cheese as you can see below.

The next step is to add your olive oil. You will want to add that in while the food processor is running. Simply turn the processor on low, and slowly stream the olive oil right into the basil mixture.

Once you have added all of the olive oil, go ahead and turn your food processor to high. Allow it to run for about 30 seconds.

Now, your pesto is ready to serve! Be sure to give it a taste, and add additional salt and pepper if necessary.

Your pesto will be best stored in a small bowl with plastic wrap over the top. The plastic wrap should touch the top of the pesto. This will keep it from getting too much air and turning brown.

Enjoy!

~Nichole