Homemade Pesto: My Personal Process
Behold, my process for making pesto from scratch. Become a pesto protégé, a professional plant pulverizer. Mmm pesto.
Why make homemade pesto? It will make you feel like a true professional. Also, you’ll never need to spend an exorbitant amount of money for pesto ever again. You can customize the ingredients a bit to give it a special flair depending on what you’re planning to pair it with. Homemade pesto is delicious.
Ingredients
Gather these bad boys around:
- Fresh basil (the more the merrier, I try to harvest from at least 1–2 decent-sized plants)
- Garlic (several cloves)
- Pine nuts (can substitute a different form of nut if pine nuts aren’t available)
- Red pepper flakes (start at 1/4 tsp and adjust to preference)
- Parmesan
- (Optional) Lemon zest/juice (one lemon is plenty)
- Olive oil
I really just eyeball the amounts. A couple tablespoons of pine nuts, a few pinches of parmesan. It will honestly depend on how much basil you are able to harvest. I try to have a few cups of basil minimum to make pesto with. When adding the other ingredients, it’s a good idea to start reasonably lower and then taste test to see what it needs more of.
The Prep
First, the basil. One large healthy plant can produce enough basil leaves to make delicious pesto. I’ve personally done this, and it’s great.
I grab a regular cereal bowl or something more wide and shallow to place the basil leaves in, and I add a layer of water so I can lightly swish the leaves around to give them a preliminary rinse and keep them somewhat hydrated while I’m collecting the leaves.
To collect the leaves, I use a pair of clean scissors to snip off the leaves close to where the stem meets the main stalk. I then trim the rest of the stem off of the leaf, so I’m left with just the leaf when I place it into the bowl. The clean scissors are to help prevent infection in the plant, and I usually remove the stem close to the main stalk for the same reason, and to keep the “wound” close to the axillary bud where new growth can occur. There may be more effective ways of doing this and this part doesn’t matter as much. Many people just pinch the leaves off with their fingers and all is fine. This is just what I do.
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Once I have a decent bowl full of leaves, a couple handfuls or so, I’ll return to the kitchen with the bowl of leaves and water, swish everything around really well, and dump out the water. I’ll then give the leaves a good rinse and thoroughly wash them before setting them aside to make into pesto.
For the pesto I make, I like to zest lemons and add the lemon zest to the pesto mixture. So if you’re interested in having a subtle lemony tang to your pesto, zest the lemon and keep that aside as well. I will juice the lemons, too, but using lemon juice is not necessary in the pesto. I’ll usually keep the juice for something else, like flavoring pasta or making a lemon glaze.
When I mince the garlic, I’ll typically chop up a pretty large amount of cloves (7–8 ish or more) and place it in a small bowl knowing I won’t use it all for the pesto. This is because I often like to pair the pesto with aglio e olio and that recipe calls for a healthy dose of garlic. You could chop up whatever amount of garlic you’d like in your pesto.
I chop the pine nuts beforehand, too. A lot of the prep is a more rough cutting and dicing of the ingredients to avoid pulverizing them too much in the food processor when it’s time to make the pesto. I read over-blending it will result in a more bitter taste overall and have found success with this method. I’d be open to hearing other thoughts on this part of the process.
I grab several leaves and stack them on top of each other before rolling the stack and cutting them with a clean pair of scissors. If I had the pair of scissors with multiple chopping blades, that would be cool, but a regular pair works, too. This results in strips of leaves that blend more easily.
The Assembly
With all of the necessary ingredients chopped up, it’s now time to assemble it all in the food processor or blender. A food processor is probably ideal. I’ve successfully made pesto in the blender, too.
I start with the leaves and add a small drizzle of olive oil to help with the initial blend. I don’t put too much effort into drying the basil leaves once I wash them because the small amount of water also helps with the blend, though it’s not enough to make the pesto too watery. I’ll also add in the chopped pine nuts, red pepper flakes, and lemon zest.
With the blender or food processor, a light and gradual pulse is the best way to go. Blitzing it at full speed endlessly will result in a pulverized pesto that might contain some bitter flavor that most people don’t care for. I won’t blend for more than a second or two before checking the pesto for consistency and flavor, adding a bit more of whatever ingredient I feel is needed to get it to where I want it to be. In this process, I’ll throw the parmesan in at the end to mix it in with the rest of the pesto, as well as more olive oil. The goal with the olive oil is to add just enough to allow for the mixture to blend properly, while not over-blending the oil. So if I can blend it decently, add the rest of the olive oil in at the end, and pulse just enough to mix it together, that is excellent.
I empty the finished pesto into whatever clean jar is suitable, tap the container on the counter to settle the pesto and release any lingering air bubbles, and then top with a thin layer of olive oil to give the pesto a good seal. For extra pizazz and to keep the lid relatively clean, I cut a small piece of parchment paper and screw the lid back on with the parchment paper between the lid and the jar. It gives the pesto that cute homemade look and keeps the oil off the lid for easier cleaning and use later.
There you have it! Homemade pesto, ready to use in pasta or whatever recipe your heart desires. This article details only how I make pesto. In reality, there are so many ways to make your own pesto. My traveling partner made four different homemade pestos once, all with different ingredients! One contained arugula, another had kale, with peanuts and cashews instead of pine nuts. You could adapt the ingredients to fit most cuisines.
I hope this recipe is helpful for you in making your own pesto. I am also always looking to improve my own cooking methods, so if you have any suggestions or prepare it differently I’d love to hear it! Thank you for reading, and enjoy, ciao! ~
