5 Minute Pesto (and three ways you can use it!)
- Molly Ishmael
- Jul 26, 2021
- 9 min read
Updated: Feb 11, 2022
The first time I made pesto was a few months ago in an effort to clean out our pantry before we moved. While prepping to pack, I found a half-empty bag of walnuts, a nearly empty bottle of olive oil, plus we had a bunch of fresh herbs in a planter that might not survive the move, and I didn't want anything to go to waste, so pesto it was! At the time, I followed an old Betty Crocker recipe (which are usually VERY reliable) but the pesto turned out very dry and paste-like. Maybe that's the way the recipe was supposed to be, but personally I was going for more of a sauce. So yesterday, I tried again with my own version of a lighter, brighter recipe, and I came up with something my daughter and I enjoyed eating with fresh veggies and pasta that evening. I guess you could say this is a real case of mom-tested, toddler approved!
I'll share my recipe along with several variations you can use for multiple purposes, including as a condiment, a sauce, and the cutest ever housewarming gift!
The One Thing You Must Have for Good Pesto
Pesto is very easy to make and requires only a few ingredients. Like most simple recipes, it turns out best when using the freshest possible ingredients, but you can totally make a delicious pesto using regular pantry staples such as minced garlic in a jar and pre-squeezed lemon juice, as long as you have fresh herbs - herbs are one ingredient that MUST be fresh. If you have a patio herb garden like we do, then you can have easy access to fresh herbs all year round.
Herb Garden on Wheels
I have to give another shout-out to my tiered herb garden! This isn't my herb garden's first appearance on this blog nor is it likely to be its last. This wheeled-wonder just keep on ticking, and the ability to turn it toward the sun or wheel it out of the rain is crucial to keeping sensitive herbs alive.
If you missed it the first time, here is the link to order one yourself. It's worth every penny in my experience, especially considering the high cost of fresh herbs in the grocery store, plus store-bought herbs only last a few days in the fridge. Worse, if you don't use the entire pack, the remainder quickly rots and goes to waste. That's why I love being able to grab a handful of just what I need on demand, no waste, no trip to the store, and no hefty retail mark-up!
Growing live herbs is extremely economical compared to buying bunches at the grocery store.
Want to see my "garden math"?
One live herb plant lasts me about 4 months before I have to replace it or cut it back to make room for young growth. If I buy the plant versus growing from seeds (which would be even cheaper), it costs me about $4 per plant for an entire season of unlimited herbs, versus $4 PER PACK of herbs at the store.
I reckon if I buy 8 plants for a total of $32, and I use fresh herbs three times a week in one capacity or another, that's 3 uses x 16 weeks of life span = 48 servings of herbs for $32. Now, imagine if I had to buy a $4 pack of herbs 48 times? At the pace I use them, retail herbs would set me back $192 every 4 months!!! We're enjoying $192 worth of grocery store herbs for the bargain price of $32, saving our family $160 every 4 months. That's an annual savings of $480.
This is all possible for the one-time investment of a convenient, tiered herb garden on wheels. Plus, I don't have to drive to the store to buy herbs or worry about them going bad.
If you don't have one already, trust me when I say that even the tiniest patio or window herb garden will open a whole new world to you, and possibly save you dollars per day, and hundreds per years! You can just trim what you need when you need it and let the rest grow peacefully, waiting patiently for you until next time you need it.
I recommend the larger tierd herb garden above, but if you're pressed for space, you could try this much smaller, clever solution that can hang inside above a window. I don't have the product shown below, but here is a screenshot of an Amazon review showing a photo of how it turned out for one buyer, and the link to buy the product yourself if you want to try it:
Traditional Pesto & Substitutions
Now that we have our herbs sorted out, let's get back to making pesto. Traditional pesto has 5 ingredients: pine nuts, basil, garlic, olive oil, and parmesan cheese. Let me share some substitutions with you, so you can make pesto anytime you want it with almost anything you have handy in your pantry!
Pine Nuts: If you're like me and don't have pine nuts on hand, you can swap in walnuts instead. In fact, you can try out many types of nuts for this recipe, including pecans and macadamia nuts! I usually have walnuts in my pantry because I use them for baking, so that's what I used yesterday.
Basil: While fresh herbs is a MUST for pesto, the herb doesn't have to be basil! I personally like basil but yesterday a sad surprise awaited me outside: a pestilence got into some of my basil and only half the stalks survived. So I subbed in some parsley to fill out the measurements until I can get my basil plants thriving again. You can even try adding mint or cilantro. Almost any earthy green herb can work. This time, I used about half basil and half parsley, because that's what I had! I even read somewhere that you can try arugula or spinach for greens, but I haven't gotten a chance to test that yet.
[UPDATE: 2 weeks after this post, my basil started to regenerate, yay! I had started spraying my homemade pest repellent on the herbs, and they are doing much better. If you want to read how to make your own healthy pest spray, check out my link here:]
Garlic Cloves: Fresh garlic is great, but you can also use pre-minced diced garlic if you don't have whole cloves on hand. I've tried growing garlic twice now, but it rotted both times. I will give it another go at the farmhouse when we get in. In the meantime, if anyone has tips for me on how to grow garlic in the Florida climate, please let me know.
Olive Oil: Olive oil is one ingredient that shouldn't be subbed out, and since it's something I always keep in my pantry, so there's no need to substitute it.
Parmesan Cheese: Leaving out the parmesan makes the recipe instantly vegan. Alternatively, if you love cheese like I do and you prefer a fresher flavor, you can leave out the grated parm from the recipe but then serve your dish with fresh shaved parmesan on top (that's what I did last night for dinner.)
Here are the pantry ingredients I use when I don't have fresh. Of course, my ideal goal is to have everything fresh or at homemade, but as we work toward that goal, sometimes we need to rely on our pantry staples! Here are the all-natural products I use if you want to try them:
The ingredients in this minced garlic by Spice World are garlic, water, and citric acid, that's it. Their website states that the product is non-GMO and Kosher. BONUS - the link below is for a larger size that is ORGANIC and actually sells cheaper than the same size non-organic on Amazon, as of the time of this publication.
Honestly, you can probably find this organic lemon juice cheaper at a local grocery store than delivered online, but if you need to convenience of online shopping, or if your grocery store doesn't stock any, here is the link. I love the convenience of the squeeze bottle since I use lemon in my water every day.
Of course, on the farm, hopefully I can grow my own lemons. I had a lemon tree at the house we just sold, along with a lime tree, cherry tree, and orange tree. They were just maturing as we left, but I didn't know if they would survive the move - really, 2 moves, since we'd have to move again when the house is done. So since we don't have any fruit trees currently, store-bought it is. Lemon is one of my favorite ingredients and I'm grateful to have it any way it comes!
Optional Add-ins
There are many non-traditional ingredients you can add per your taste: salt and pepper, for instance, which I did today. I bet that red pepper flakes for some heat would be fun. Lemon juice is a popular add-in for pesto, and you can also try lime. You can even toss in a handful of flax seed or chia seeds if you're looking to add those to your diet. While pesto is made raw, you can also cook the finished product with more oil, cream, or white wine to make a flavor-packed sauce.
For tonight's dinner, I added lemon juice to my pesto which was deliciously zingy. Then I added a generous spoonful to a cup of cream, cooked it gently on the stove, tossed in some angel hair, and topped with fresh lemon, tomato and basil for a lovely colorful dish. Bonus, it not only looked pretty, it tasted amazing! And other than a tiny carton of cream purchased for about $1.50, the dish was made with ingredients already stocked in my pantry.
3 Ways to Use Homemade Pesto
First, you can enjoy pesto as-is. Serve it raw as a condiment; it would be an herbaceous addition to a charcuterie or cheese board, a colorful topping for crostini or bruschetta, and it can be mixed into oil or creamy salad dressings!
Second, you can cook pesto with some added liquid as suggested above and use as pasta sauce. Simply add a spoonful of pesto to cream, white wine, olive oil or butter, sour cream, or vegetable broth... the possibilities are endless to create your very own pesto-based sauces.
Third, you could can it and give as a thoughtful, tasty gift! Beautifully packaged handmade pesto is a great housewarming or holiday gift.
And now without further ado, let's make some pesto!
PANTRY PESTO
Prep Time: 5 mins / Makes 1 pint
RECIPE
1 cup chopped nuts, such as walnuts or pine nuts
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cloves garlic or 2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
A few turns of fresh ground black pepper
4 cups in total of fresh herbs, such as basil and parsley, chopped
(Optional) Fresh parmesan cheese: 1/2 cup grated if added to the recipe, or a few handfuls shaved if topping a pasta dish. Skip if you don't have any or to make the recipe vegan.
DIRECTIONS
1. Place all ingredients EXCEPT herbs in a small bowl and use an immersion blender or food processor to blend. You want to make sure you emulsify the nuts before adding the herbs. I used a stick blender because it creates fewer dishes = winning.
2. Add in the chopped herbs a handful at a time and blend until smooth.
3. Serve immediately or refrigerate or freeze for later use. Refrigerated pesto keeps about a week; frozen lasts a few months. Alternatively, you could can your sauce for longer keeping or for the ultimate handmade hostess gift!
NOTE: The full recipe above makes about a pint. I made a half-recipe as I was only serving myself + a toddler, plus I didn't have enough surviving basil to make a full jar anyway. It looks like my next project will be bringing back my basil plants!
STEP-BY-STEP DIRECTIONS WITH PHOTOS
1. Place all ingredients EXCEPT the herbs in a small bowl and use an immersion blender or food processor to blend. Make sure the nuts are emulsified before adding the herbs. I used a stick immersion blender because it creates fewer dishes = winning.
2. Add in the chopped herbs a handful at a time and blend until smooth.
3. Serve immediately, or refrigerate or freeze for later use. Refrigerated pesto keeps about a week; frozen lasts a few months. Alternatively, you could can your sauce for longer keeping or for the ultimate handmade hostess gift!
NOTE: The full recipe above makes about a pint. I made a half-recipe as I was only serving myself + a toddler, plus I didn't have enough surviving basil to make a full jar anyway. It looks like my next project will be bringing back my basil plants!
TIP: I read online that pesto turns brown in the fridge, but not so when you add lemon juice and protect it from air and light by wrapping in plastic and foil. My leftover pesto is still equally green the next day!
And that's how easy it is to make pesto! And it's kid-approved, to boot!
Coming up later this summer, I'll share how I turned this little green wonder into a delicious, creamy pasta sauce by just adding a few ingredients. In the meantime, perhaps try a few variations of the recipe and see what flavors you prefer.
*The photo above is a stock photo since we ate most of our pesto on the spot yesterday, haha.
Usually I don't use stock photos, but I wanted to show what a thoughtful gift this would be for a housewarming party or a hostess gift. The good news is that it only takes a few minutes to prepare. And the great news is that the taste payoff is massive especially considering how easy it is to make! Certainly hand-made pesto is a welcome addition to many meals! I hope you try the recipe, and please tell me how you use it at your table.
With Love,
Molly
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