The Absolute Best Basil Pesto Sauce & Paste

Pesto might be the best thing to happen to food, ever.

Okay so, I love pesto. I really, really love pesto. I love basil, I love garlic, and I love parmesan cheese - and together it's pretty much my favorite thing to put on anything. I used to buy store bought pesto, but they were always so high in calories that I had to stop. I can not control myself with pesto, God help me with pesto and pasta.

Anyways, I was tired of 150-200 calorie per tbsp pesto, so I started making my own. Each time I would buy basil from the store and it just became  inconvenient. I'm serious, I love this stuff, so I need it on hand at all times. I use basil just as often, and in almost literally everything, so I started growing my own basil. Last year - my first time growing and tending to a plant of any kind - I utterly failed. Bought another plant. Failed again. I will definitely have to write a post about my learning experience with growing basil, and the do's and don'ts. I digress... this summer I decided to give it a try again and I bought two basil plants at my grocery store for a total of $4 - which is pretty awesome considering a small portion is sold for just as much. They were on sale and they looked amazing so, I went for it. I did my research and faithfully watered my plants this time. Low and behold, it's pretty damn easy and you get so much basil. I mean, I didn't even know what to do with that much basil. I gave away mason jars full of pesto on the regular. So yeah, this is definitely beyond worth it. And your pesto will taste amazing. 

Pro Tip # 1

Grow your own basil. It's easy, cheaper, and always on hand

I've made pesto so many times I couldn't possibly count. If you love pesto, like me, then you know that there is good pesto, and great pesto. Like, the kind that leaves you speechless (because you can't stop eating) and testing the limits and boundaries of your expanding belly. I also love to experiment so I've done a lot of research and tried different recipes and techniques.

Pro Tip # 2:

Toast the garlic and the pine nuts. Raw garlic pesto is good, but it has nothing on toasted/roasted garlic. Same goes for the pine nuts. If you are short on time, then I gueeessss you can skip this step. But only in the most dire of circumstances, you're really cheating yourself if you don't.

Be super careful with this guys. I've had my share of burned pine nuts... Actually, I've had my share of pine nuts on fire. Literal fire. Huge flames. I thought I was going to burn my house down. DO NOT PUT THEM IN A TOASTER OVEN AND FORGET ABOUT THEM, EVEN FOR JUST A MINUTE! I smelled them burning, and when I opened the door to the toaster, oxygen ignited the pine nuts and HUGE FLAMES came lapping out of the oven. Also, don't put your toaster oven under your wooden kitchen cabinets. I was seriously lucky I had a bowl next to me because I ran to the sink, filled it with however much water I could get in literally 2 seconds, ran back, and threw it on the flames. I barely had enough water. The flames almost didn't go out. I literally almost burned my whole house down. I don't think I can express how large these flames were, and how QUICKLY they grew even bigger. And they were hungrily lapping at my wooden cabinets. It was TERRIFYING.

Anyways, so toast them on your stove and keep an eye on them. These suckers burn so fast.

Pro Tip #3
Release the oils in the basil by bruising the leaves. Throw them in a Ziplock and press on them lightly with your palm or with some sort of flat object. I softly use a meat pounder. 

Next issue is the process. I've made pesto by hand, and it is incredibly time consuming. It is also probably the best tasting I've ever had. The harsh reality is that its just not practical. You have to finely chop the garlic, pine nuts, and basil and it can be just as physically taxing as it is time consuming. As I've mentioned, toasting the garlic is recommended, however doing so will change the consistency of the garlic and will make it much softer.. so chopping toasted garlic isn't going to be fun. You may have to make a sacrifice. 1) and use raw garlic 2) use toasted garlic then put it in the food processor with the oil, sacrificing some of the hand made integrity. We can't have it all, can we? Despite all the struggles, do it by hand at least once. You'll see. Its magical. Here's some great instructions: How to Make Pesto like an Italian Grandmother. So the reason that this way is better, is because the flavors are together, but remain independent - unlike emulsified pesto made with a processor or blender. You can separately taste basil, garlic, and parmesan and I swear it is like a party in your mouth. 

Pro Tip # 4

Chop everything by hand if you have the time: do your best to avoid using machines, or use the ones that do not emulsify as well as a processor/blender.

For me, this would be the processor attachment of my immersion blender. The blades are placed higher up from the bottom of the container, and therefore do not actually liquefy/emulsify my pesto. This is the ideal ratio of greatness to time consumption that I have found. This is it right here!

It gives me the perfect consistency. 

Pro Tip #5
Use as little oil as possible. You can always add more. This saves you on tons and tons calories. A lot of the time when I cook I find that whatever I am adding pesto to already uses oil in the cooking process, to add additional oil from the pesto is just senseless extra calories. 

Pro Tip #6
Use what you need for today, and freeze the rest in ice cube trays - 1 tbsp or 2 tbsp in each depending on your ice cube tray and your personal preference. For pesto, I personally like 1 tbsp cubes. You will need to add more oil in order to freeze. 

You will make too much pesto. You will always make too much pesto. You will forget to freeze it, and you will waste the pesto. Which is a sin in my book. Unless I'm cooking a huge meal, I never get to use it all, and I always forget to freeze it later.  I always think to myself, "No, I'll wait to freeze it... I love this stuff, I'll always find something to eat it on." No. It never happens. I am far too busy to make food on a daily basis and this is why I tend to cook in large quantities or meal prep. I'm assuming most of us live the busy life, so just freeze it as soon as you make it. Save yourself the pain of throwing pesto away because it sat in the fridge for too long.

Freezing methods:

The execution is up to you, its merely a matter of personal preference and usage.

1. Add a little more oil to the whole batch - add just enough so that it will freeze in a cube
2. Portion out the pesto into the tray, and then top it off with oil. 

Usually when you top off with oil you will be using more of it. Adding oil on top can be useful for something that needs to be (briefly) cooked in oil anyways, and you want to impart the pesto flavoring as well. However, do not use this method if you will be adding this at the very beginning of the cooking process. The basil will lose its flavor if it is heated too much.

Adding a small amount of oil to the entire batch is preferred when you've already been cooking with oil and only want to add the pesto flavor. This is the healthiest option.


Well kids, that's it so far. I will probably constantly be updating this and adding more tips.

Next time, I want to try it shallots!

 Ingredients

• Fresh Basil, from your basil plants if you're a boss, ~1 cup
• Garlic, whole or chopped, ~1 - 1.5 cloves
• Olive Oil - 1 tbsp, note: add more olive oil to make a sauce. Or add less if you really want. See note below
• Parmesan Cheese, 0.35-1.0 oz weighed, measure by filling a 2 oz ramekin half way 
• Toasted Pine Nuts/Almonds/Hemp Seeds (whatever is on hand) - 0.5 oz weighed, or measure by filling a 2 oz ramekin halfway

Note:
This makes a very dense pesto, it's more like a paste than a sauce. I like to keep my sauces dense, and low calorie because its very easy to go overboard and forget just how many calories you are using. You can always add more olive oil later.
This particular recipe is a total of about 263 calories in 2.20 oz, give or take depending on how much oil, cheese and nuts you used. Because its so dense it only requires A LITTLE per recipe, start with a touch and add more if needed, just be mindful of calories when you season to taste.
Add up to 1/3 cup of olive oil if you wish, or are not afraid of/ not watching your calories.

Directions:

1. Break off a couple cloves of garlic - peels still on - and toast them on a pan on the stove. The peel will allow the garlic to toast without burning
2. After about 6 minutes, or whenever the garlic peel starts to get darker, throw in the pine nuts and stir or shake the pan around often. Keep a very watchful eye because the pine nuts will toast much faster, they will be done in a couple minutes. 
3. Combine basil pesto sauce ingredients in food processor, Vitamix/Blender, of finely chop by hand
4. Store whatever you need today or tomorrow in fridge for use in the immediate use
5. Freeze the rest in ice cube trays until solid, pop the cubes out of the tray, then store in freezer safe Ziploc bags. Remember to add oil in one of the ways mentioned above.
6. No, seriously, freeze it now. You will not finish it!