Pesto could easily be one of my favorite sauces to both make and eat. It’s so simple, with only a few ingredients but the flavor is amazing. I love having this with pasta, on pizza, baked chicken or fish, added to salad dressings, as a dipping sauce, and so much more like our healthy Personal Chicken Pesto Pizza recipe! This pesto recipe uses toasted walnuts instead of pine nuts, crushed red pepper to give a little heat, and lemon juice to help it retain it’s brilliant green color.
We like the change the kind of basil we use depending on what we are growing in the garden. You can use traditional sweet basil which will be readily available at the grocery store, we used a 75% sweet basil/ 25% Thai basil combination for this recipe. When making this recipe the key is to use high quality ingredients, especially with the olive oil and Parmesan cheese since any lower quality ingredients will be evident in the final product.
Ingredients
- ½ cup walnuts
- ½ lemon
- 10 cloves garlic
- 2½ cup fresh basil
- 1½ cup olive oil high quality
- 1½ tsp salt
- 2 tsp crushed red pepper
- 1 tsp pepper freshly ground
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese grated
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Lay walnuts on sheet pan and bake for 5-7 minutes, until slightly toasted. Let cool.
- Clean basil and dry. We like using a salad spinner to dry the basil because it prevents bruising to the leaves.
- Add juice of ½ lemon, walnuts, and garlic cloves to blender and blend well. Add basil and slowly add oil while blending. Stop when all ingredients are fully incorporated. Add crushed red pepper, salt, and pepper, blend for 2-3 seconds. Add Parmesan cheese and blend. Store in air tight container with small layer of olive oil on top to help preserve green color.
Notes
Nutrition
Love all kinds of pesto? Us too! Check out our Roasted Jalapeno Pesto Recipe! It has all the delicious flavor of regular pesto with a nice smoky taste and a little kick!
