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My Besto Pesto & Simple Summer Pasta

June 5, 2017 by April

It took me a few summers of gardening but once I learned the sekrits of growing basil, thanks to some random pin I saved, I've been able to raise prolific amounts of basil from seed for the past several years. And one of the sekrits of prolific basil is prolific picking. So I began making a lot of pesto over the years, using a recipe that I don't even remember where it came from, its actually printed on an index card in my recipe binder and just called Besto Pesto. Even my basil hatin' husband likes it and admitted to it just last week.

freshly picked basil

besto pesto
Print Pin

Besto Pesto

This pesto recipe is one of the most basic and useful ones around, making it what I consider the besto.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Italian
Keyword pesto, sauce
Prep Time 5 minutes minutes
Total Time 5 minutes minutes
Author April

Ingredients

  • 2 cups basil
  • ½ cup Parmesan cheese
  • ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • ⅓ cup pine nuts
  • 1 clove garlic
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Put everything except the olive oil in a food processor.
  • Turn on the processor and drizzle in the olive oil, pausing once or twice to scrape down the sides.
  • Pulse until it’s the consistency you want and add olive oil as needed to achieve it.

besto pesto

For a recipe like this that we end up eating about once a week in the peak growing season, I like to just keep it simple. So simple. This pesto most frequently gets devoured as a light sauce for pasta noodles of any shape, and topped with quartered cherry tomatoes of any color and sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

pesto pasta with tomatoes and cheese

Yesssss. I love summertime.

chopped heirloom cherry tomatoes

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About April Blake



Cooking doesn't have to be boring and routine. Are you looking for easy dinners, Southern-inspired recipes, fun desserts, and ways to incorporate unusual ingredients in your cooking? Welcome, you're in the right place!

I'm April Blake, a recipe developer, food, agriculture, and travel writer, and digital marketing manager in South Carolina. Please follow me on Instagram, but not in real life.




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