Is your garden full of basil or have you seen the fresh basil at the grocery store and wondered what you could do with it? We’ve got a tasty idea, homemade pesto. Enjoy this yourself, preserve some in the freezer and/or gift this goodness to a neighbor!

Pesto is great in pasta, sandwiches and swirled into hummus. Have fun making fresh, homemade pesto.

Homemade Pesto

Ingredients:

¼ cup pine nuts

4 cloves of fresh garlic, peeled

4 cups of fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Place all ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor. Pulse until fine in texture drizzling in the olive oil as you go.

Tips:

Need to avoid dairy or make this recipe vegan? – omit the parmesan cheese & add a dash of salt and increase nuts to ½ cup or substitute equal amount of nutritional yeast.

No pine nuts? Swap in an equal amount of walnuts, almonds or pecans.

Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 1 week or freeze.

To freeze:

Portion into an empty ice cube tray and freeze until solid. Then transfer to an airtight container and keep in the freezer.