Classic Italian Pesto Sauce
Pesto Sauce is a staple in our household. I make a large batch, portion into ice cube trays, freeze and bag up and use whenever needed. Many view that pesto should be eaten fresh and say it loses it’s flavour after freezing. Personally, I don’t find it makes any difference! By all means eat some fresh on the day, it will keep for up to a week in the fridge. But save yourself time by storing some in the freezer for another week. It’s still heaps better than store bought!
Feel free to substitute pine nuts for walnuts or other nut. I tried walnuts before when I’d run out of pine nuts. Experiment with different nuts and also with different herbs or vegetable. Have you tried Kale Pesto yet? I made Kale Pesto a while ago and managed to get it by the kids, check out the recipe here.
My kids all like pesto sauce. It’s probably something to do with all that parmesan!
There aren’t many green meals they will eat apart from pesto pasta and spinach and ricotta cannelloni, which are two of their all time favourite dinners and which happen to be green!
Classic Italian Pesto Sauce
Simply start by adding all the ingredients except the parmesan and olive oil to the food processor and start blending while gradually pouring in the oil down the funnel.
Once desired consistency is reached stir in the parmesan, taste, season with salt and pepper and add a squeeze of lemon if you like.
Pesto sauce can be used in several ways. I often find myself falling back on a pesto based dish for the kids on Meat Free Monday, when lacking inspiration for anything else. This happens a lot when trying to come up with solely veggie based meals for the kids!
Pesto sauce recipes often say a handful of this or a handful of that. Not sure how big your hands are or what you would consider a handful – I reckon the quantities could vary quite widely depending on who’s preparing it! My two very large handfuls of basil weighed 100g, that was 4 packs of fresh basil, and this quantity yielded 560g of pesto, which equated to 29 ice cube portions.
Some ways in which you can use the Pesto Sauce:
- Pesto Pasta on a Meat Free Monday : Toss 4-5 defrosted cubes of pesto with spaghetti or penne. It’s such a quick, healthy and easy meal that it’s definitely got to be there on the repertoire. Add grilled chicken or any leftover chicken you may have from a roast for added protein.
- Salmon en-croute with pesto : A fillet of Salmon coated in 1-2 cubes of defrosted pesto then wrapped in puff pastry and baked for about 30m in the oven – easy and healthy too.
- Crushed new potatoes tossed in Pesto
- Green beans tossed in Pesto
- Tomato & Mozzarella Salad : drizzle some pesto over the mozzarella
- Use as a dip
- And many more ways beyond pasta, check out this link for further ideas.
Do you eat a lot of Pesto? In what ways do you use it? Please feel free to share your suggestions in the comments box below.
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Classic Italian Pesto Sauce
- 300 g extra virgin olive oil
- 100 g fresh basil leaves picked
- 100 g pine nuts very lightly toasted
- 100 g parmesan cheese freshly grated
- 1 cloves to 2 garlic
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- squeeze of lemon optional
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Add the basil, toated pine nuts and garlic to a food processor and start to process
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Gradually start adding the olive oil down the funnel
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When blended to your desired consistency stir in the parmesan
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Season to taste
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