Basil Pesto and How to Freeze It

My husband loves pesto so I love to have it on hand to add to pastas, grilled chicken, veggies, or make pesto mayo to add to sandwiches.  Making pesto is super easy.  I use a food processor to make pesto instead of a mortar and pestle for the convenience.

Recipe

Adapted from Alice Water's Recipe

Makes about 3 cups

Pick leaves from: 

   a bunch of basil, to yield about 2 cups of lightly packed basil

Roughly chop 

   2 garlic cloves

 Toast

   1/2 cups of pine nuts

Grate

  1/2 cups of Parmesan cheese

Put all the basil, garlic, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, and salt in the food processor and pulse a couple times.

Slowly add 

   1 cup of extra virgin olive oil while pulsing mixture in food processor.

Adjust salt to taste

Please note:  If you plan on freezing the pesto, omit the Parmesan cheese.  Add when you are ready to serve the pesto.  The cheese can change textures when you freeze it and I do not recommend it.

Keep an eye on the saute pan when you are toasting the pine nuts.  They burn really easily!  I usually stand by with a spatula and stir the pine nuts around 'til they are lightly toasted.

Toasting the pine nuts give the pesto a great flavor. 

I always buy my olive oil at Costco!  I love Costco for items I use all the time like olive oil.

Since I am freezing my pesto, I did not add any cheese to it.  I put the pesto in a ziploc container and wrote a little note for myself so I know how much cheese to add when I'm ready to use it and when I made it.  I will try to use it within 2 months.