Homemade Basil Pesto + Freezing Tips

Homemade Basil Pesto comes together in minutes in your food processor or blender and only requires a handful of simple ingredients: basil, walnuts, lemon, extra virgin olive oil and kosher salt. No cooking required for this classic Italian sauce.

Plus I have included tips on freezing your pesto- you will have enough to last the entire winter!

Pesto is great over grilled chicken and seafood- like shrimp skewers, drizzled over crispy potatoes and of course, perfect with an Italian salad! This fresh Pesto also can be a great garnish for Roasted Fennel.

If you have an over abundance of fresh basil, this Homemade Basil Vinaigrette is also a great recipe.

RELATED: If you want a smaller batch of pesto for one dinner, pop over to this recipe for Pesto Pasta. or Pesto Cream Sauce. Or if you make this recipe, give it a try in this delicious Pesto Lasagna Skillet Recipe.

Listen To This Recipe

You can listen to the full recipe on the podcast “Let’s Make Dinner“. I share all the tips and tricks plus recipes to use your fresh pesto!

Why You Will Love This Pesto Recipe

• It is easy to make and ready in minutes.
• Only uses simple ingredients, most of which you probably have!
• Freezes perfectly for later use.
• It is a bright and healthy sauce.
• Great way to use up an excess of fresh homegrown basil.

What is Pesto

If you have never had Basil Pesto, it is a traditional Italian sauce, made from fresh basil leaves. It is a blended herb sauce that is great on chicken, seafood, or pasta.

It has a strong flavor of basil mixed with a tartness of lemon and nuttiness from the olive oil and nuts.

Fresh Basil

Every summer I plant basil, just in a pot, on my patio. And every summer I have an overwhelming abundance of basil. More than I could ever use by randomly plucking a few leaves for my pasta.

That is where this pesto recipe comes in handy. It is a great way to use up all that fresh basil, making sure it doesn’t go to waste.

Tips on growing a healthy, long lasting basil plant:

1. As the basil plant grows pinch off a few of the new, tiny, itty-bitty leaves growing in the center of the larger leaves. This allows the plant to grow wider and bushier.
2. Do not let your basil plant go to seed. As the plant grows taller and older it will form flowers at the top. Pluck those flower buds off, down to the nearest basil leaves. This will allow the plant to grow longer and not dry out.
3. If your plant does flower at the top this is the time you can harvest most of the plant. Cut each stem towards the bottom; count up two or three leaf patterns and cut just above the second or third set of leaves. This will leave just enough plant to regenerate.

By tending and cutting your plant this way you will allow it to regrow 1, 2 , or 3 times thru the summer! Giving you a ton of pesto for your freezer!

Ingredient Details

You only need a few simple ingredients to make fresh Basil Pesto.

Basil– lots of basil! You will need 5 cups of basil.

Garlic- lots of garlic too! The recipe calls for 7 cloves, which I know sounds like a lot but it adds amazing flavor. If you are nervous about what 7 cloves of garlic will taste like, dial it back to 4-5 cloves.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil – make sure you use extra virgin olive oil, it is the one with FLAVOR. Regular olive oil doesn’t have the bite that EVOO does. The EVOO is also the blending liquid for all the ingredients and makes your pesto saucy.

Lemon- The lemon has three jobs in the pesto; it keeps t he basil nice and green, it adds liquid to help blend the ingredients down, and it adds amazing flavor. I always say recipes need a “high note” (or an acid) and the lemon does the trick in this recipe!

Walnuts – Add a heartiness in texture to your pesto sauce. You can also sub toasted pine nuts for the walnuts, like I did in the You Tube Live Video.

Parmesan Cheese – Fresh grated parm is totally optional here. If I know that I am going to use my Pesto in a pasta recipe that already calls for a lot of parm I might skip it. But just use your tasting preference here.

How To Measure Basil

I am adding this section after I had a reader ask about measuring basil…

I couldn’t agree more, Theresa! I recently made pesto live on You Tube and when it came to measuring the basil I thought that stuffing it in a measuring cup is really a flawed system.

Also trying to weigh basil doesn’t seem practical.

So what I decided was the best, unscientific, method is using your hands lightly cupped together filled with basil = roughly about 1 cup. It worked great and my pesto turned out perfect!

Step By Step How To Make Pesto

Pesto is truly a really easy sauce to make, and it is perfect during a hot summer when you don’t want to simmer or boil a sauce all day!

1. Start by adding the nuts and garlic to a food processor or strong blender. Pulse about 20-30 times to start breaking them down.

2. Add the basil, lemon juice, salt and parmesan cheese if using. Turn the processor on and begin to break down the basil.

3. After about 10 seconds, start to slowly add the extra virgin olive oil through the feed tube on the top. Note- if you don’t have a feed tube you can add all the olive oil in the step above and it will work just fine.

Pro Tip: You may need to stop and scrape the sides to make sure everything gets blended together.

4. Once it looks pretty smooth, open up the blender and give it a taste to see if you prefer more lemon or want more salt.

Storing

Store your fresh basil pesto in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 1 week. You can also freeze your pesto so it can be used for longer!

How To Freeze Your Fresh Basil Pesto

You can absolutely freeze homemade pesto! This recipe makes a large batch of fresh pesto so it is great to plan on freezing at least half the recipe.

• After making the fresh basil pesto recipe pour it into an ice cube tray- in 1 ½ tablespoon portions. Top each cube with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
• Put the ice cube tray in the freezer.
• After a couple hours the pesto cubes will be frozen, pop them out and store them in a freezer safe bag.
• You can keep the cubes in the freezer for up to 6 months.
• Pull out the delicious homemade pesto 1, 2, or 8 cubes at a time to add to your recipes.

Ways to Use Fresh Basil Pesto

You can use fresh pesto in so many ways! Here are a few recipes to get you started:

1. Pesto Pasta
2. Pesto Lasagna Skillet
3. Drizzle over a Caprese Salad (tomatoes and mozzarella).
4. Serve as a sauce for grilled chicken.
5. Drizzle over Roasted Fennel.
6. Spoon over Crispy Oven Potatoes.
7. Use as a dip for Roasted Shrimp.
8. Make a salad dressing for an Italian Salad.

Other Great Basil Recipes

---