Homemade Pesto Recipe
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This homemade pesto comes together in minutes and is one of the easiest ways to make the most of summer basil. Toss it with pasta, spread it on sandwiches, spoon it over grilled meats and vegetables, or swirl it into soups.
Pesto, or pesto alla Genovese, is a vibrant, garlicky green sauce from Genoa, Italy. Made with fresh basil, nuts, garlic, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and olive oil, it’s one of the easiest and most versatile sauces you can make at home. While pesto is traditionally made with a mortar and pestle, a food processor makes quick work of it.
This homemade pesto recipe uses walnuts instead of the traditional pine nuts, making it more affordable without sacrificing flavor. Once everything is blended together, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference. I make a batch whenever basil is overflowing in the garden, and since it freezes beautifully, I always stash a few containers away for quick meals later on.
“Simply, my favorite pesto recipe!”
What You’ll Need To Make Pesto Sauce
- Walnuts: Traditional pesto is made with pine nuts, but I almost always reach for walnuts. They’re easier to find, much less expensive, and have a rich, buttery flavor that works beautifully.
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: Use vibrant, fragrant leaves with no dark spots. Be sure to wash and dry them thoroughly—wet basil can dilute the pesto and dull the flavor.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Binds everything together and adds smooth, fruity richness. Use one you enjoy the flavor of since it’s a major component of the sauce.
- 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 shelf-stable grated cheese or anything labeled “Parmesan” or “Parmesan cheese.”
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-by-Step Instructions
Pulse the walnuts and garlic first, then add the basil and seasonings. As you slowly drizzle in the olive oil, the pesto will come together into a smooth, vibrant green sauce. Taking your time with the oil helps it emulsify for the best texture.
Pro Tip: If you don’t have a food processor, a blender works too, though you may need to stop and scrape down the sides a few times to keep everything moving.
Add the cheese and blend just until incorporated. It’ll thicken the pesto slightly and give it a rich, creamy texture.
How To Store & Freeze Pesto
Pesto keeps well in the refrigerator for about a week. To help prevent browning, smooth the surface and pour a thin layer of olive oil over the top before refrigerating (this seals out the air and prevents the sauce from oxidizing).
For longer storage, freeze pesto in ice cube trays. Once frozen, transfer the cubes to a freezer bag so you can thaw exactly as much as you need.
Best Ways to Use Homemade Pesto
Homemade pesto is far more versatile than just pasta. Here are some of my favorite ways to use it:
- Toss it with homemade pasta to make pesto pasta
- Make zucchini noodles
- Spoon over grilled chicken, shrimp, salmon, or steak
- Spread on focaccia, sandwiches and smash burgers
- Drizzle over roasted vegetables
- Stir into minestrone or vegetable soup
- Spread on pizza instead of tomato sauce
- Swirl into scrambled eggs or omelettes
- Mix into mayonnaise for sandwiches
- Spoon onto burrata with fresh tomatoes
- Drizzle over baked potatoes
Video Tutorial
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Homemade Pesto Recipe
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup walnuts, toasted if desired (see note)
- 2 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly 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.
Notes
- 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.
- Freezing 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 an airtight container. You can add the defrosted pesto cubes to soups, pasta dishes, eggs, sandwiches, and potatoes.
Nutrition Information
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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This is an excellent, affordable, pesto. I’ve made better pesto, but it involved spending a whole lot of time with a mortar and pestle. This is the pesto I make and freeze in the summer.
Great pesto. I use walnuts because I have gotten Pine Mouth Syndrome before. It lasted two weeks and was so annoying. I attributed it to the source of the pine nuts. I had bought a big bag at Costco and I’m sure the nuts were from China. I have nibbled on pine nuts since then that were from Italy (I think) and they were fine.
I just made the pesto, using pine nuts and fresh basil, however when I tasted it, it has quite a bitter after taste. I thought maybe I had used too much basil. I re-read your recipe and see that maybe it’s the pine nuts??
I didn’t want to sacrifice on the authenticity the pesto by swapping out the pine nuts for walnuts but i like this bitter taste even less. Will the walnuts affect the taste much?
Hi Vicky, I haven’t heard much mention of pine mouth syndrome lately but I assume it’s still out there. Are you still experiencing a bitter, metallic taste? If so, unfortunately, it may have been the pine nuts that caused that. If not, not really sure why you’re getting a bitter taste from the pesto — did you make any adjustments to the recipe aside from using pine nuts?
This was great. My guests enjoyed it very much – so much that we had it on toast the next morning!
Love this recipe! The only difference is that I toast the walnuts first and add a splash of lemon juice.
Or lemon zest
I made this recipe all summer last year, using sunflower seeds – which are even cheaper than walnuts, and quite tasty. Looking forward to starting the routine again this year with my aggressive basil.
|This is delicious!! This is my first time making it and I used pecans, no walnuts on hand. I also added sundried tomatoes and some of their oil. I’m not a big Pesto fan but I had a bunch of basil and this is what my search brought me to. Amazing!!
Hi Jenn,
First, I must tell you how much I love your blog! I find your stories and recipes so encouraging and reliably delicious I want to try them all. I will now make your pesto with walnuts. Have you tried Marcella Hazan’s blender pesto? That has been my go-to pesto recipe for years. She adds butter to it at the very end. I’ve learned I can reduce the quantity of olive oil she calls for and add less butter. But after making it with and without the butter, including it does provide an added creaminess.
And I also wanted to tell you I have taken your yummy peanut sauce for the Asian slaw (a summer staple for me) and made a new recipe with it: a vegetable rice salad, with the peanut sauce as the dressing. One of the old Vegetarian Epicure cookbooks by Anna Thomas has a veggie/rice salad with an olive oil/parm cheese sauce. Delish but I love the flavors in your Asian slaw sauce! Cooked white jasmine rice with an assortment of chopped raw veggies based on color so it turns into a very colorful salad. Purple onion, orange carrots and/or peppers, red/yellow peppers, green zucchini and yellow summer squash….
Thanks again for your recipes! Sally
Thanks for all your kind words, Sally–so glad you like the blog! And thanks also for sharing how you’ve put the peanut sauce from the Asian slaw to good use. Your take on it sounds delicious! And good to know about the pesto; a little butter never hurt anything! 🙂
Hi Once Upon a chef your Pizza is the best, question do you roast your walnuts for this pesto? I mention this as I got a little bit of metallic taste on the roof of my mouth or could this be something else?
Hi Sue, Did you by chance make the pesto in a blender?
We made this pesto tonight. Since it’s still early spring, my windowsill basil could only offer me 1 cup of leaves. I made up the balance with spinach and it was still great! We appreciated the walnuts instead of pinenuts. We have had trouble sourcing pinenuts without peanut traces (a problem for our house). Thanks for the recipe!