I do love a pesto pasta dish! However, shop-bought pesto CAN be fairly expensive and, in my experience, it’s really hard to get a decent pesto sauce that tastes really good. That’s one of the reasons I was so excited when I realised that pesto is actually one of the quickest, cheapest and easiest sauces to make from scratch (I know, I probably should have realised it a long time ago, it’s fairly obvious!). Additionally, my homemade pesto recipe can actually last quite a long time in the fridge too, especially if you poor a really thin layer of olive oil on top before you put it in the fridge!
Pesto is all about experimenting with a few ingredients until, eventually, you get it just right. It’s really easy to make more of it too, in case you ever haven’t made enough to go round, as there are so few ingredients and it’s also a great idea for using up leftover greens that are about to go off!
So here is my very ‘Jamie Oliver style’ (bish bash bosh…) recipe for an Easy Peasy Pesto.
Ingredients for my pesto recipe:
Two very large handfuls of left over greens such as basil, spinach or kale (or a mix of them all!)
A handful of nuts such as pine nuts, almonds or (my favourite) cashew nuts
A clove of garlic (2 if you like your pesto garlicky)
A good few glugs of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Pepper to taste
Some extras you could include:
Lemon juice – just a few squeezes to give it a little lemon zing.
Or you could add a few gratings of parmesan or cheddar cheese.
Method:
- Put all ingredients into a blender and blend – voila!
You may need to add a little more or less olive oil depending on whether you want your pesto runny of thick.
You can pop it in a jam-jar and keep it in the fridge or add it straight to pasta or salad.
This recipe should make roughly enough for 3 or 4 servings. For more, use a whole bag of greens and increase the other ingredients accordingly!
For more of our recipes visit the “healthy recipe” section of my blog.
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