Nut Free Pesto

Pesto is a crowd pleaser in our family! And due to our tree nut allergies; we need to be very careful with Pesto since it often contains pine nuts.  So making a nut-free Pesto at home is the best way for our family to enjoy this tasty pasta!

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Ingredients:

  • ¾ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 2-4 cloves of garlic (depending on your preference; I often use 2 very large cloves or 4 if they are small)
  • 75 grams (2 cups) Fresh Basil Leaves, washed and dried
  • 1 cup Parmesan Cheese
  • ½ teaspoon of salt
  • Juice of ½ a Lemon

Directions: 

  1. Using a food processor, thoroughly chop the garlic
  2. Add all the fresh basil and salt – process until full chopped
  3. Add lemon juice and cheese; blend
  4. Using the top opening, slowly pour in the olive oil until fully blended
  5. Heat the pesto slightly on the stove; but do not bring to a boil or heat enough to melt the cheese! Just heat enough so that you’re not adding cold sauce to your pasta!
  6. If using the pesto for pasta, I recommend to reserve some of the pasta water to blend with the pasta and pesto. It helps to spread the pesto and adhere it to all the pasta.
  7. Pesto also freezes very well and can be used on a lot of different meat dishes. I love to add grilled chicken to my pesto pasta dishes!