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You are here: Home / pasta / Tutorial: Making Basil Pesto

Tutorial: Making Basil Pesto

July 20, 2011 by Suzie the Foodie 7 Comments

Making Pesto for One

One of my favourite sauces in the world is pesto. It is a raw sauce made in a food processor that is absolutely packed with flavour. Easy and delicious, an absolute must-know-how-to-make dish especially in the summertime.

Looking back through my blog recently, I was surprised that I had not gone over the classic basil pesto (although you can find my sundried tomato pesto here). I do not have a recipe for basil pesto but if you are looking for a good one, check out Tyler’s. It’s awesome! This post is more about technique and foodie intuition.

Making Pesto for One

As you know, I am really trying to stretch a buck these days so when I saw a container of basil on sale for 50% off I bought it. I had to discard some of the leaves but as you can see…

Making Pesto for One

… Many of the leaves were extremely healthy. I adore basil with its woodsy minty scent! What a joy. I tried growing basil but a few plants do not last long when you like pesto as much as I do so I prefer to buy it from my store. All this was only around $1.

Making Pesto for One

The components that go into making pesto are not cheap. You need fresh Parmesan which luckily I had bought in a huge chunk on sale and then divided into wedges and keep in my freezer. When you do that it gets very, very crumbly. Perfect for pesto.

Also, most people add pine nuts but that is so cost prohibitive. Not just for me! I looked at a store-bought version and they used almonds instead so that is what I did. I toasted some on the stove and threw them in. I also grated in two big cloves of garlic and added some salt and pepper. Then I drizzled in a a few tablespoons of olive oil and started processing the sauce.

Making Pesto for One

It was a little thin so I boosted it with some more nuts and cheese for volume.

Making Pesto for One

You want the pesto to be thick but still a tad fluid. If you want to use it later, add extra oil in the top to preserve the sauce.

Because I used what I had on hand, this two-serving sauce cost me, essentially, just over $1.

Making Pesto for One

I cooked up some spaghettini, sauteed mushrooms and roasted a chicken breast. I sliced up the chicken and tossed everything in the pesto. This is one of the tastiest lunches you can make and I love it when I get to eat so well for so little.

It has taken me a long time to be able to move beyond a recipe and cook more intuitively but once you do, you can take one ingredient on sale and make yourself something special for very little money. Not only is cooking your own food good for your body, it is extremely good for your wallet!

More than anything, food like this is good for your spirit.

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Filed Under: pasta, pesto, sauce, tutorial

Comments

  1. Debra She Who Seeks says

    July 20, 2011 at 12:59 pm

    Looks good!

    Reply
  2. Emily Malloy says

    July 20, 2011 at 1:00 pm

    This looks perfect!

    Reply
  3. lindsey says

    July 20, 2011 at 1:12 pm

    Yum! I didn’t know you could use almonds. I’ll definitely be giving this a try soon! I ordered a manual food processor from Pampered Chef that, I swear, works better than my electric one. Sounds like a good experiment to me. Thanks for this tasty idea!

    Reply
  4. AvaDJ says

    July 20, 2011 at 2:13 pm

    Wow, I can smell it from here it’s so fresh. I love pesto but you’re right about those pine nuts, super big bucks for them, I never buy them. Almonds sound amazing though, going to have to try that.

    Reply
  5. Tammy says

    July 20, 2011 at 4:40 pm

    Pesto is one of my favorites (and thankfully my husband likes it too!) We saw someone on the Food Network recently make it using cashews – which I’ll try next time! Yummy!

    Reply
  6. Andreea says

    July 20, 2011 at 10:49 pm

    That looks absolutely amazing and basil is probably one of my fav herbs. Thanks Suzie for another great recipe! I always learn something new from your blog.

    Reply
  7. cookingvarieties says

    July 21, 2011 at 6:48 am

    hi suzie, waoooooooow , this is definitely one of the best site to learn cooking and excel in culinary.

    i sure love the beautiful and crisp looking images shown here. you have done a great job and deserve the compliments
    mine is a foodie too, would be great to read a comment from you also. have a nice day

    Reply

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