Homemade Basil pesto

It’s incredible how versatile Basil pesto can be: you can use it in tons of recipes as a main ingredient to give an extra tasty flavor. I’m not only talking about pasta with pesto or pizza with pesto, but also chicken with pesto, white fish with pesto, sandwich with pesto, couscous with pesto…and I can keep going.

Although there are good pesto jars at the grocery store in Italy, the homemade version is so much better with that fresh basil taste and the incredibly intense green. In addition to that the homemade version is cheaper and ready in 5 minutes….no excuses!

What you will need:

The procedure is extremely simple: place all the ingredients at once in a blender, close and mix for 2 minutes up until you will obtain a thick bright green paste.

    

 

Few comments regarding the ingredients:

Basil: the king of the ingredients for this recipe. It has to be Italian basil. If you are lucky to find the Italian Genovese basil, that’s even better because that’s the perfect kind of basil for the pesto.

Cheese: the traditional recipe wants Pecorino cheese only. In my personal opinion a mix of Parmesan Cheese and Pecorino Cheese is better, more delicate and still very tasty.

Extra Virgin Oil of Olive: that’s another key ingredient as we are using the oil cold and we will taste it. I really suggest a good quality Extra Virgin olive oil, the one you would use on salads. On my side for the pesto I’m using Taggiasche Olives Extra Virgin Olive oil.

You can store the pesto in a glass jar with a lid. It’s important to cover the pesto with a tiny layer of olive oil on top, it will prevent the oxidation of the basil due to the contact with the air (it will not ruin the pesto, just make the pesto dark green).

I usually divide the pesto in small jars and store them in the freezer for up to 3/4 months. The taste doesn’t change!! Enjoy!