Easy Garlic Basil Pesto Recipe

Basil is one of those foods that I reaaaally love the smell of. It’s one of those scents at the market that always catches my attention. Basil is up there on the list with bread, butter, and beer.

I used to have a small basil plant that I couldn’t quite keep healthy. Well, I kept it “alive” long enough for the pet bunny to stand up and nibble at all the leaves. That was the last I saw of that.

So basil is something that’s probably better for me to source from the grocery store. Keep in mind the common basil of North America is different than the ones you’ll find at most Asian markets. One simple recipe I like to make is a simple basil pesto with pasta.

This is a recipe I probably wouldn’t make if I didn’t have my food processor. You can probably get by with a blender, or one of the ‘bullet’ blenders or knockoffs.

However, if you do have something like that the work is pretty easy. The hardest part is cleaning up.

Start by pulsing the garlic to get it as fine as you can. This takes about 3 seconds.

Then add the pine nuts, cheese, and salt. I like to under-season with the salt so others eating can adjust to their own taste. Quickly pulse a few times to roughly chop and mix the ingredients.

Slowly drizzle olive oil through the feed tube of the lid as the food processor is running. You can adjust how much oil you use here to get a consistency you like.

Serve your garlic basil pesto with pasta or spread it on some toast.