Pesto Sauce
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Homemade pesto sauce is easy to whip up and delicious on just about everything—from pastas and pizzas to salads and sandwiches.
One of my favorite things about summer cooking is stepping out my back door to pick fresh herbs from my potted herb garden. It always amazes me how the tiny seedlings I plant in May grow into more herbs than I can possibly use up by August. When the basil is overflowing, it’s pesto sauce time!
Pesto, or pesto alla Genovese, is a vibrant, garlicky green sauce from Genoa, Italy. While the traditional method uses a mortar and pestle, these days, a food processor makes it a breeze. This versatile sauce is fantastic on everything—from homemade pasta and pizzas to salads, vegetable soup, and sandwiches. What’s even better? It freezes like a dream, so you can enjoy a taste of summer all year long! Try it in my favorite pesto pasta.
“Simply, my favorite pesto recipe!”
What You’ll Need To Make Pesto Sauce
- Walnuts: Add richness, nutty flavor, and help create a creamy texture. I use them instead of traditional pine nuts because they’re more affordable, always in my pantry, and don’t come with the risk of Pine Mouth Syndrome—a strange metallic taste that can linger for weeks after eating certain pine nuts. Almonds, pecans, and pistachios work well too. Pro tip: Toast the nuts in the oven or a dry skillet for a few minutes to deepen their flavor.
- Garlic Cloves: Bring bold, punchy flavor that is key to the flavor of pesto.
- Fresh Basil Leaves: The heart of any classic pesto—fresh, fragrant, and full of vibrant flavor. If your basil is freshly washed, make sure it’s completely dry before adding it to the food processor—excess water can make the pesto too loose or dull the flavor.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Binds everything together and adds smooth, fruity richness.
- Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano: Adds salty, nutty flavor. Always use authentic Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy—look for the name stamped on the rind or clearly labeled on pre-grated packages. Avoid anything simply labeled “Parmesan” or “Parmesan cheese.”
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Chop the walnuts and garlic. Add the walnuts and garlic to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Pulsing instead of processing continuously helps prevent the mixture from turning into a paste too early—this gives your pesto better texture.
Step 2: Add the basil and seasonings. Toss in the fresh basil leaves, salt, and pepper.
Step 3: Process. Blend until everything is finely chopped.
Step 4: Stream in the olive oil. With the machine running, slowly pour the olive oil through the feed tube and let it blend into a sauce. Adding the oil gradually while the machine is running helps emulsify the sauce, giving your pesto a smooth, cohesive consistency.
Step 5: Add the cheese. Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano and process again until the cheese is combined with the remainder of the ingredients and the pesto is smooth.
How To Store & Freeze Pesto
Use the pesto immediately or store it in a tightly sealed jar or air-tight plastic container, covered with a thin layer of olive oil (this seals out the air and prevents the sauce from oxidizing, which would turn it an unappetizing brown color). It will keep in the refrigerator for about a week.
Pesto can also be frozen in an airtight container for up to 6 months. I suggest dividing it into the compartments of an ice cube tray and freezing. Once frozen, remove the cubes from the tray and put in a sealable plastic bag or airtight container. You can add the defrosted cubes to pasta salad with pesto, zucchini noodles, pesto pizza, scrambled eggs, sandwiches, or baked potatoes.
Video Tutorial
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The Best Basic Pesto
Homemade pesto is easy to make and so much better than store-bought—perfect for pasta, sandwiches, soups, or the freezer.
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup walnuts, toasted if desired (see note)
- 2 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Instructions
- Place the walnuts and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process until coarsely chopped, about 10 seconds. Add the basil leaves, salt, and pepper and process until mixture resembles a paste, about 1 minute. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil through the feed tube and process until the pesto is thoroughly blended. Add the Parmesan and process a minute more. Use pesto immediately or store in a tightly sealed jar or air-tight plastic container, covered with a thin layer of olive oil (this seals out the air and prevents the pesto from oxidizing, which would turn it an unappetizing brown color). It will keep in the refrigerator for about a week.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: Pesto can be frozen in an airtight container for up to 6 months. You can also divide your prepared pesto into the compartments of an ice cube tray and freeze. Once it’s frozen, remove the pesto cubes from the tray and put in a sealable plastic bag or airtight container. You can add the defrosted pesto cubes to soups, pasta dishes, eggs, sandwiches, and potatoes.
- Note: Toasting the walnuts isn't essential, but it brings out their flavor. To toast them, preheat the oven to 350°F. Arrange the walnuts on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake, checking frequently, until lightly toasted and fragrant, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer immediately to a plate to cool.
Nutrition Information
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- Serving size: 2 Tbsp.
- Calories: 159
- Fat: 17 g
- Saturated fat: 3 g
- Carbohydrates: 1 g
- Sugar: 0 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Sodium: 161 mg
- Cholesterol: 4 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Gluten-Free Adaptable Note
To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you're following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.
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Jenn’s recipes have become my go to for family dinners – hands down, the best recipes I’ve ever made. Thank you for sharing these with all of us. I’ve made this pesto twice and it was a big hit with my entire family – so delicious. Mine came out a bit too thick both times but I was likely too generous with my basil measurements plus a poorly working food processor. This recipe has inspired me to replace it. I can’t wait to try it once again.
Excellent recipe and I prefer the walnuts to pinenuts. Not sure if that is a China / NA sourced nut issue or not. Reduced the olive oil just a bit and added a touch of lemon juice. We grew our own basil in our greenhouse in the Yukon. Best basil I’ve ever tasted and the pesto ditto. Made 11 125ml jars for the freezer this long winter. Delightful.
Does the pesto freeze well? How is it when defrosted? Thanks!
Hi Katherine, Pesto freezes beautifully and retains its consistency and flavor when defrosted. See the bottom of the recipe for more detailed freezing instructions. Hope that helps!
Foolproof and really delicious.
Hi, Jenn
We enjoy pesto when Mom’s basil is prolific all summer. But, some say the pine nuts have a ‘metallic taste’. A little detective work sheds light on the problem: it’s the pine nuts from China! Research on Wikipedia says pine nuts from China are not pure. Be safe. Use walnuts or pistachio nuts instead, or if you have to have pine nuts, make sure they are grown in the US; not just distributed from the US. I have to toss my recently purchased pine nuts that are from China (read the fine print!). You’re welcome.
Absolutely fabulous! Changed a few things but only because it is a palate preference but the base of this recipe is the best I’ve used in a very long history of making pesto. You can adapt this recipe to your own taste. Just great! Will use it all the time and delete my others. I usually use pine nuts but was out so I had walnuts and it is wonderful either way.
Oof!!! Wrong again. The 1/2 cup was for the parm. EVOO was 2/3 cup. So please just ignore (or erase) the foregoing. At this point, I don’t know what I did to add too much EVOO to my batch. Apologies.
See earlier review today: Partly my bad for not checking. I opted to go with the metric measures, and the recipe said 160 ml EVOO. The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup. That is 118 ml, not 160. So when I adjusted all measures for my 44 g of basil, I added 202 ml instead of 149. Issue solved.
I made this yesterday and used 1/3 for noodles with pesto for dinner. The rest I froze in two batches for later use. I would recommend using less olive oil by 25 to 30 percent. It was way too runny, and the pesto really didn’t stick to the noodles that well. One could always add more for a give application; difficult to add less.
I loved this recipe, so tasty on pasta!! I mixed about 2/3 cup pesto with 1/3 cup pasta water and it coated my pasta so nicely!! Only thing I added was the zest and juice of 1/2 lemon.
I made this today. Quadrupled the recipe. Very good. Put several containers in the freezer.
Thank you for a great recipe!