This pesto recipe is might be close to traditional, but I tried to build in some flexibility. The deviations from more traditional recipes are because I like my pesto extra nutty and prefer the vegan option.
Ingredients:
1 cup basil (tightly packed)
2 garlic cloves
1/3 cup pine nuts (traditional, delicious but expensive!!), pistachios (not traditional, but still kinda pricey!) or sunflower seeds (saves you some $)
1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil (or more, depending on your preference)
1/8 cup nutritional yeast (this is the vegan option!) or parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp salt
Makes 1 cup.
Instructions:
There are a few ways to do this.
Method 1: To destress (if you’re not in a hurry!) get your molcajete out (your mortar and pestle for those of you not familiar with the Spanish term with Nahuatl roots) and put your strength into grinding. I recommend you do the garlic first, then your nuts or seeds of choice, and add the basil last, a little bit at a time. Your setting yourself up for frustration if you pile the basil in—it’s just a lot harder to grind so many layers of leaves at a time. For me, it’s unsatisfying! But if you add two or three leaves at a time, you can really take pleasure in the meditative transformation of the beautiful leaves into a bright paste. After the garlic, nuts or seeds and basil is ground, scrape it out into a dish and then add the salt, nutritional yeast or parmesan cheese and, finally, the olive oil. This is where you decide how thick to make your pesto. If you don’t want it so think, add more oil.
Method 2: Put all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Or, put it in a slightly oversized dish (like a 2-cup pyrex container, for example) and use the immersion blender directly in the dish. This is not the fastest, but by far, the easiest clean up if you can manage to keep the immersion blender immersed below the level of olive oil so that it doesn’t spray everywhere when you start to blend.
Final tip: It took me a long time to assimilate our italian roommate’s discovery that the way to mess up pesto is by adding too much garlic. I love garlic so that was hard to hear. I think he’s right though because the power of raw garlic can easily overwhelm. (This from a person who’s mouth waters at the thought of taking a bite of the fresh whole garlic clove!) So, the tip is—When in doubt, add less garlic.
Serve with pasta, in place of tomato sauce on pizza, or over soup—our family favorite (Thanks, Tio Kooki for this!) white bean pesto soup (I’ll post that recipe soon!).