home made basil pesto with pine nuts

i finally conquered my fear [or was it laziness] of making my own basil pesto with pine nuts from fresh ingredients.  my sister had just learned how to make fresh pasta and she asked me to make the sauce for it for our planned dinner that night.

i scoured the nearest supermarket for some pesto of the bottled kind but they yielded nothing.  i contemplated on going to another store but decided to check the fresh herb aisle for basil.  i negotiated with myself that if i found good-looking ones i would then try my hand at making the sauce from scratch too.

so i was able to buy 6 bunches of okay-looking basil leaves and hoped to the heavens that my rarely-used electric mini-chopper still worked.  i was not ready to chop them leaves with my knife for fear that my arm would ache so much i wouldn't be able to hold up a spoon and eat. =P i noted with delight that i had everything else i needed in the pantry, yes, even pine nuts [which have been perfectly preserved in the freezer for a secret number of years, can you believe that???]

it turned out a real hit.


because the ingredients were fresh you could inhale the pungent fragrance of the newly chopped basil leaves infused in the the deep, rich olive oil with every forkful.   and you get to bite into real pine nut bits and whole ones too.

it was a cinch to make [thanks to my trusty chopper].  i got the recipe from here. 

i tweaked it a little by warming it all up on the stove-top and stirred in freshly grated parmesan cheese [pecorino is hard to come by in my part of the world].

oh, i also dry roasted the pine nuts and only pulsed half of them for added texture.  i used the remaining half as topping with more grated parmesan.. and i did not follow the proportions [i'm lazy that way], i go by feel and frequent tastings, he he. =D you can check out my recipe version here.

all in all, this is what i have to say: you can find plenty bottled pesto in any well stocked grocer, plus you can stock up the ready made ones for longer.  but nothing beats the taste of fresh ingredients, so i urge you, go ahead make your own basil pesto.  it's fast, it's easy, it has a very short ingredient list and most of them you already have in stock!

and more importantly! you get the added bonus of being able to declare that you made it from scratch and then bask in the oohs and ahs of your guests, if they can manage it between mouthfuls. ;D

my pine nut proven fact: they say you can keep it in the freezer for a maximum of 6 months or so but i've had mine for probably 4 years now and they are as fresh as the day i bought them.  and they DO NOT freeze at all, they just stay crunchy.