How to Make Homemade Pesto Sauce
If you’ve been around my blog for a while you know I love pesto sauce. Over the years I’ve shared various recipes using pesto, but I realized I’ve never shared a recipe for pesto… crazy right? So today I’m sharing a super easy Homemade Pesto Sauce recipe. Pesto sauce is so versatile and it freezes well too!
Homemade Pesto Sauce
I am a huge fan of basil, garlic, and cheese… some of the main components in pesto… so it’s no wonder I love pesto.
It’s easy to put together in your food processor.
You can freeze it… bonus… you’ll just want to add a little extra olive oil to it. I like to freeze in 1/2 cup sizes.
This recipe makes about 1 cup.
How to Make Pesto
Add your beautiful, washed basil leaves to your food processor.
Add the pine nuts and minced garlic on top of the basil. Pulse about 10 times.
Place the parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste to your food processor.
Add about 1/2 of the olive oil and pulse about 10 times.
Add the remaining olive oil and let the food processor go for about 10 seconds or until you reach your desired smoothness.
In just minutes you’ll have delicious, fresh pesto sauce… perfect for so many recipes!

Homemade Pesto Sauce
Equipment
- food processor
Ingredients
- 1 cup basil leaves you could also do 1/2 c. basil and 1/2 c. spinach
- 4 garlic cloves
- 3 tbsp pine nuts
- ⅓ cup Parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
- ⅓ cup olive oil
Instructions
- Add your washed basil leaves to the food processor.
- Add the garlic (minced) and pine nuts to the basil leaves.
- Pulse 10 times.
- Add the grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.
- Add about half of the olive oil.
- Pulse about 10 times.
- Add the remaining olive oil and let the food processor go for about 10 seconds or until you reach your desired consistency.
I hope you get a chance to make your own pesto sauce sometime. It really is super easy and so delicious when it’s freshly made.
Recipes with Pesto to Try:
Creamy Pesto Three Cheese Tortellini with Chicken
Yum. I love fresh pesto and use it in a lot of chicken dishes. Thanks for sharing your recipe on Merry Monday. Pinned.