Your Boum pots on the balcony are starting to bloom and thrive, especially your basil is growing. But what do you do when your basil plants are fully grown and ready to harvest? Why not try a classic Italian dish - basil pesto!
Preparation
Ingredients for 4 servings:
- 25g pine nuts
- 80g Parmesan cheese (e.g. Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano)
- 50g basil
- 1 garlic clove
- half a lemon
- 150 ml or eye measure of olive oil
- pinch of salt and pepper
Cooking utensils:
- cutting board
- Good knife
- kitchen grater
- Large container and hand blender or stand mixer
How it works
- Roast the pine nuts in a pan without oil or fat and let them cool briefly.
- In the meantime, you can peel the garlic clove and set it aside.
- You can also grate the Parmesan now.
- Wash the lemon thoroughly, grate the peel of half a lemon and squeeze the juice.
- Now wash your basil and dry it well.
- Take your container and add your basil, toasted pine nuts, garlic clove, lemon zest and juice, and grated Parmesan.
- Finally, add the olive oil; you can do this by eye or add it while mixing.
- Mix all ingredients until you reach the desired consistency. This is easiest with a hand blender, but you can also use a stand mixer.
Finally, you can season your pesto with salt, pepper or both.
preservation
You can now fill your finished pesto into sealable containers and store it in the fridge for one to two weeks. If you prefer to freeze your pesto, you can keep it this way for up to a year.
You can enjoy your pesto in so many delicious ways!
For example, you can conjure up a hearty main course of spaghetti, penne or gnocchi with pesto or use it as a hearty spread on bread. Do you have any more creative recipe ideas?
Would you rather have a step-by-step guide that you can watch? Here is a video that you can watch at any time.
