Pesto Sauce
This is a simply scrumptious homemade pesto sauce recipe.
Equipment
- blender/ food processor/ stick blender
- mortar & pestle (optional)
Ingredients
- 3 cups basil leaves (fresh is absolutely best)
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ cup sun-dried or semi-dried tomatoes (drained and roughly chopped)
- ½ cup Parmesan or Romano cheese (finely grated)
- ½ cup pine nuts
- ½ cup olive oil (good quality, if available, please)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Use a food processor or hand-held blender to combine sun-dried tomatoes, basil, and garlic.
- Add cheese, pine nuts and half the olive oil.
- Continue blending, gradually adding the salt & pepper, and the last half of the olive oil.
- Ensure the ingredients are well combined.
- When there are no lumps left, scrape pesto into a jar or air tight container.
- Store in the refrigerator until ready for use. (Will last 3 days.)
Notes
If you are using a mortar & pestle:
- Allow yourself considerably more preparation time. It will take you around 20 minutes to completely grind down the basil & garlic.
- Very finely grate the hard cheese, and stir it through the basil, garlic, and oil mixture at the end. Do not try to break the cheese down using the mortar & pestle!
- Cut the sun-dried/ semi-dried tomatoes up very finely and add them in at the end, too.