Basil Pesto

“Spicy, zingy, bold, yet full of subtle nuance. Incredibly simple to make, and a little goes a LONG way. I tried it with home grown basil on bowties with some diced sundried tomatos, and YUMMMMM…. Lovely color as well!”

“The lemon is a nice addition to the pesto… zingy and bright, this fresh sandwich add-on really ‘made’ the sandwich (I was having a tomato sandwich).Great, thank you!”

“Tasted pesto only once at the Macaroni Grill and it was so bland I did not order it ever again. A few months ago I started growing a basil plant, now I have 3 and they were taking over the house so I decided to try your pesto. It is so delicious my husband and I could not stop eating it right out of the food processor! I think it’s the addition of lemon that gives it the zing. Thanks”

“Wow! What a burst of flavor!!! Loved this recipe.It is the first time I have ever grown basil and it sure won’t be the last.Great sauce.Thanks for posting.Barb”

“We too ate spoonfuls right out of the food processor! I froze one batch thinking that I would use it in the winter. However, I have already been into it (a week later) and I can say that it freezes and thaws well. We stir-fried some zucchini and red peppers and added the pesto and it was great. Have also used it on pasta with chicken – also great. This pesto is thick enough that you could even put a little bit on a cracker and top with a small shrimp as a colourful addition to an appetizer platter. Thanks Bonnie!”

“I give this one 5 stars for the basic concept and the “punch” it gives to basic pesto.However, I do feel there’s WAY too much lemon in this!I made this pesto because I needed pesto in a recipe and the lemon was very overwhelming when I first tasted the pesto.To offset this, I increased the pine nuts, EVOO, parmesan and basil to make more of the pesto to dilute the lemon.PERFECT!When I make this again (and I will since it’s far more flavorful than normal pesto) I will cut the lemon juice ratio either in half or possibly even in 1/3.Thanks for posting.GREAT flavor!”

“First time I have made my own pesto and it came out great!Spread it on slices of french bread, topped with sliced roma’s and mozzeralla cheese and popped under the broiler.My husband said I can make this every night for him.”

“Wow, I have used this recipe three or four times now, and feel I must check in. I put it on a spinach fettuccini, and I will tell you, it is good, hot or cold. Cold on a cold green fettuccini it is a kind of…you know: hot stuff. It makes a summer lunch special.”

“Delicious! 4 cups basil, 8 garlic cloves, zest of half a lemon, juice of 1 1/2 lemons, 3/4 c pine nuts, 1 c grated parmesan and about 1/3 cup really fruity olive oil. It did need a good one-and-a-half or two teaspoons of kosher salt. Spooned into ice cube trays (at least the part we didn’t eat right out of the processor, smeared on bread) and frozen until hard, then transferred to a vacuum-seal bag for longer storage.”

“We all loved it!!I am going to have to buy more basil plants to feed my habit:) I did use walnuts just because the pine nuts were so expensive at the store and added a pinch of sea salt.I spread it on french bread, layered roma tomatoes, and mozzarella and popped it under the broiler as suggested by deb k.Thanks for a great and easy recipe.”

“This was really yummy.I used toasted walnuts instead of pine nuts.I could eat this all day!”

“4.5 stars!I have to say I’m a big fan of the lemon juice in this recipe! I also liked how it used half the amount of olive oil that other recipes asked for. I was a bit nervous this would be dry but it actually came out really great and creamy. It tasted amazing when I tasted it for seasoning. I added a tiny bit more lemon juice. However, once I added this to pasta, the flavor immediately died and tasted quite bland. I added a bunch of salt and pepper but it was still bland. Strange because it was so flavorfulbeforehand. I’d def. use this as a dip or added to a cold pasta salad.The lemon juice is just the best part of this recipe as it keeps the basil so bright and green!”

“Awesome recipe. I halved the recipe and used 4 oz pre-crushed basil in a tube. I also omitted pine nuts. I substituted lemon juice with lime juice. Tasted great in pasta!”

“Great! I substituted cashews for the pine nuts and it came out perfect! I will be making this again for sure. I used the pesto to top off mushroom and spinach ravioli. Delish!”

“I used 3 cloves of garlic and walnuts as I didn’t have any pine nuts. It was great! We made a pesto, tomato and broccoli pizza with it. It was fantastic! Thanks!”

“First time making basil pesto, and it was delicious!>br/br/br/br/

“Wow, what flavour!I doubled the recipe, used 8 garlic cloves (we love garlic!) and made it as stated.I will use this on the Pesto-Chicken Italiano tonight, and freeze the rest.I have LOTS of basil in my garden this year, so I will for sure be making this recipe again for the long winters in Wisconsin,Thanks Bonnie for the recipe.”

“Wow, this pesto blew my tastebuds off! A tiny dab’ll do ya. The flavor improved, I believe, after a night in the fridge so it had a chance to meld. After reading the other reviews I got daring and used slivered almonds in the place of pricey pine nuts because I had some on hand. I don’t think it really detracted from the overall flavor.”

“This was a greatpesto! Love it over grilled chicken and pasta. Will make this again for sure!”