Time: 10 minutes · Serves: 4 as a pasta sauce · No cooking required
What you need
- 50 g fresh basil leaves (roughly two large handfuls)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 50 g pine nuts, or toasted walnuts as a free-foraged alternative
- 80 ml good olive oil
- 30 g Parmesan, finely grated (optional, leave out for a vegan version)
- Juice of half a lemon
- Pinch of salt
Method
- If using pine nuts, toast them in a dry frying pan over a medium heat for 2–3 minutes, tossing occasionally, until lightly golden. Watch them carefully, they go from golden to burnt very quickly. Tip onto a plate and leave to cool completely.
- Pull the basil leaves from their stems. Small, tender stems are fine to include; avoid the thicker, woodier ones near the base.
- Peel the garlic cloves. If you find raw garlic very pungent, you can blanch the cloves in boiling water for 30 seconds to mellow the flavour slightly.
- Put the basil, garlic, nuts, and a good pinch of salt in a food processor. Pulse until you have a coarse, crumbly mixture. Alternatively, use a pestle and mortar: start with the garlic and nuts, pound to a rough paste, then work in the basil a handful at a time.
- With the processor running (or while stirring in the mortar), gradually pour in the olive oil in a thin stream until you have a thick, cohesive paste. Stop before it becomes completely smooth, a little texture is part of what makes pesto good.
- Stir in the Parmesan if using, then add the lemon juice. Taste and adjust with more salt or lemon as needed.
Tips
- Pesto keeps well in the fridge for up to a week. Pour a thin layer of olive oil over the surface before putting the lid on, this prevents it from browning.
- It also freezes well. Spoon into an ice cube tray, freeze solid, then transfer the cubes to a bag. Drop a cube or two into pasta or soup straight from frozen.
- Walnuts are a particularly good free or foraged alternative to pine nuts. Toast them first for the best flavour. Almonds and cashews also work well.
- If your basil has started to flower, the leaves may be slightly more bitter. This is still fine for pesto, just balance it with a little extra lemon juice.