Homemade Pesto

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This is the best pesto recipe I've found. Yes, it's got a lot of garlic, but that's part of the pesto experience. I still can't figure out why people change the recipes and feel the need to write a mediocre review. It makes no sense.

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I used about 3/4 cup of olive oil and 3/4 cup of parmesan. The pesto was delicious! Easy and we saved half of the pesto for another day! Great over grilled mahi-mahi!

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Fresh pesto is so superior to store bought. This recipe is super easy with the food processor. And I do like the addition of walnuts. It not only adds body to the pesto, but walnuts are less expensive. Although the pesto is best when freshly made, this recipe makes more than I can use at one time. I freeze the rest in small containers, covering the top with olive oil. Very nice to have in the freezer! It defrosts quickly.

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There are several things amiss with this recipe:

1 Too much fat / oil seems to be a Garten trademark. The pesto is an oil slick with basil added. Far too much oil in proportion to the basil. My hubby's Sicilian relatives agree. For 5 cups of packed basil, use 1/2 to 1 cup of olive oil, not 1 1/2 cups per this recipe.

2. Walnuts are an also ran in pesto - useful in a pinch, but the best path here is with all pignolias. They're spendy but worth it.

3. You probably won't' want the salt - a good, fresh grated parmesan will be pretty salty on it's own.

4. On the cheese, a good FRESH GRATED, not food processor ground or pre grated and packaged, Parmesan is essential to good pesto.

A tip:

Put some of the pesto in ice cube trays and freeze. Should be about 2TBS, 1 oz, each. When frozen, pop them out of the tray into a zip lock bag and keep frozen. A pesto cube popped into pasta sauce or a veggie soup thaws quickly and adds a great fresh basil flavor.

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As my husband would say...

'There is no such thing as too much garlic!!'

(With him being allergic to onions, we do what we must!!

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Fantastic Pesto! I followed the recipe exactly as written. Make sure the basil leaves are packed when measuring. A teaspoon of salt is not to much for this recipe. You measure the garlic by 3 Tablespoons, NOT the 9 cloves in parentheses, that's a guideline, because of course it depends on the size of the garlic clove. The pesto also freezes very well. If it gets to dry after thawing, just add a bit more olive oil.

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I had a bumper crop of basil in my garden this summer and made a lot of pesto and froze it using this recipe as a guide. You always have to temper the salt when you use one of Ina's recipes. I don't know why she is so heavy handed with the salt, but I cringe when she adds it. Maybe I'm not eating like the rest of America, but it's usually too much for me and my husband. Also, I think that the garlic here is a misprint. I'm sure it means 3 teaspoons and not tablespoons. Anyway, that's what I used 3 teaspoons and 1/2 tsp of salt and it came out great. The way I figure, you can always add more salt, but it's too late once it's in there.

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I discovered Pesto from a Food & Wine magazine in the late 80's, and I've been hooked ever since. I had a bumper crop of Basil this year and decided to give making my own pesto a try. Enter Ina, and her receipe. Magnifico! An absolutely great receipe, and success. Lake Lady from Smith Mountain Lake.

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Good recipe. But come on. Stop with the fancy names. Call pignolis what they are .......PINENUTS

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I foolowed the recipe but used 3 cloves of garlic and modified it to reflect the ingredients I had handy.... I used almonds that I ground with my handy dany nut grinder; about 2 cups of basil from the garden; about 4 cups of fresh spinach leaves; and the juice of 1 lemon along with a little lemon zest - maybe 1/2 tsp....the rest was the same. This was really good...