MIY Monday: Homemade Pesto!

My MIY Mondays's Mission is share creative, innovative, fun and (hopefully) cheap ideas and projects for you home and life, as well as healthy and (hopefully) cheaper alternatives to everyday cooking, shopping and eating out. I hope you will join in my on my mission!

About a month ago me and my aunt harvested a huge batch of basil from her garden. As she promised, we then decided to make homemade pesto! And believe me, this stuff is amazing!

Recipe:

1 Cup of pine nuts (but you can also use cashews, walnuts, etc...google it!)

4 cups of fresh basil, firmly packed

2 cloves of crushed garlic

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil

The first thing we had to do was get all the leaves off the basil stems, which took quite a long time to do actually! She had SO much of it!

While we were doing this, the pine nuts were roasting in the oven and 450 degrees. With careful watching, they were taken out once they turned lightly brown. 

 Next came the garlic, which we peeled and crushed before moving onto the blender!

My aunt even has a fancy crusher!

Putting the basil, garlic and pine nuts into the blender (or if you have one, food processor), we then pureed everything until it was smooth.  The end result looked like baby food! 

This is where the magic happens. Using freshly parmesan cheese makes it taste so amazing! So guess who got to use the fancy grater? Tee hee :)

 Also according to my aunt, the kind of olive oil you use actually affects the flavor. I never really thought of that, but then again, I don't buy olive oil too often.  So we ended up using the one on the left, which was organic, extra virgin.

Olive oil and cheese in blender, we set to work mixing it all together! 

After it was all combined we tasted and then added a bit more basil, tasted again and added more garlic, tasted again and added more oil. Long story short, the recipe is just a basic guideline. It really is about preference. I loved the end result, but according to my aunt, she's done better. She very much thinks it is the type of oil we used that affected the flavor. 

Upon getting the recipe the way we liked, the pesto was divided into mini jars to be frozen until further use. I still have 5 of the 6 in my freezer, waiting for the perfect pasta night! What I was worried about was that these little jars wouldn't serve very much each, but after using one of them, I learned that the flavor goes a very long ways. 

Wanna join MIY Mondays? Just add your link below and take a banner if you want!

Want an idea for something to eat with your pesto? Check out my other blog, Lisa's Tiny Kitchen, for a chicken parm recipe!


~Lisa