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:
- Using a food processor, thoroughly chop the garlic
- Add all the fresh basil and salt – process until full chopped
- Add lemon juice and cheese; blend
- Using the top opening, slowly pour in the olive oil until fully blended
- 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!
- 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.
- 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!