Basil Pesto sauce

Basil Pesto Sauce

Topping up Pesto before Storing

Fresh homemade pesto from freshly plucked Basil leafs has great flavor and color. I had grown a Basil plant in a pot in my balcony, and the seeds were transported to other pots by wind thus it was like basil basil every where filling my balcony with fragrance. I used it in salad, mushroom baked sandwiches, pasta etc. They would start making appearance in abundance so I decided to make Pesto. After using bottled pesto from market I realized the difference between homemade pesto from garden fresh Basil and the bottled one from market. The addition of few walnuts gives a wonderful earthy taste. I just love this Pesto.

Preparation Time: 5-10 minutes

Making Time: 10 minutes

Makes 400-450 gm of Pesto

Ingredients Required for Making Pesto:

• 100-120 Fresh basil leafs.

Fresh Basil Leafs

• 8-10 pods of Garlic.

Garlic

• 10-15 Almonds.

Almonds and 

• 4-5 Walnuts.
• 1 Teaspoon Salt (or to taste).
• 100 ml. Extra Virgin Olive oil for Pesto sauce.
• 10-15 ml. Extra Virgin Olive oil for topping up.

Directions For Making Basil Pesto:

• Remove the stalk from leafs.
• Roast Almonds and soak them in water.
• Once almonds are soaked remove the peel (Brown covering) from roasted, soaked almonds.
• In a mixer-grinder take Basil leafs and grind them thoroughly.
• Add
• Garlic
• Almonds
• Walnuts
• Salt
• Grind. If required very little amount of water can be added to make a fine paste.
• Add half the amount (50ml) of olive oil slowly to the paste along with pulsing the paste in mixer. Do not run the mixer at high speed. Otherwise the color of Pesto will become foamy and whitish.

Thick Pesto Paste

• Remove the paste in a big bowl and add the remaining 50 ml of olive oil along with mixing with the help of a spoon.

Pesto After Adding Olive oil

• Fill the container in which you wish to store the Pesto with your freshly made Pesto sauce and top it up with 10-15 ml of olive oil.

Topping up Pesto before Storing

• It lasts for months in freezer and in fridge at least for 6 months, but I bet you it will finish before that long. For experimenting I kept some amount in a little bottle but after 6 months my patients gave way to polising it off.

Tips:

• Make sure the smallest stalk is removed for best texture.
• Garlic can be adjusted according to taste and the size of pods.
• More Almonds can be added if one wishes but do not add more walnuts, they may leave a little bitter taste if added in excess.
• Do not add excess of water, else the Pesto sauce will become runny and no one wants runny Pesto. One or two teaspoon will be enough.
• Suggested Variations: None.