Monday, June 28

A Less Expensive Pesto

We planted some fresh herbs this year in small planters on our back patio.  Well, actually DH did.  But I went and bought the seeds.  Now we have tons and tons of fresh basil.   Yum, yum!  I am having to find recipes to make sure to use it all up.  Tough life, huh?

Fresh pesto can be expensive to make, if you have to purchase fresh basil and the pine nuts and the Parmesan cheese.  Things can add up very quickly.  So I have a little trick for you all.  Of course, grow your own basil if you can--that saves you $3-$4 each time you make it.

Next, pine nuts are extremely expensive!  At Costco, they are around $15 a bag, which of course, it is a large quantity, but it's a nearly half of my weekly grocery budget.  DH mentioned at his restaurant, they make their pesto with peeled almonds instead (see my tip here for peeling almonds), for that very same reason.  Really, I thought....I will have to try that.  This is what I came up with.






























Fresh Basil Pesto

1-2 cloves fresh garlic
1 1/2 cups fresh basil
1/4 cup peeled almonds
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Extra Virgin Olive Oil to desired consistency

With food processor running, drop peeled garlic cloves through feed tube to mince.  Once minced, add basil, almonds, and Parmesan to food processor and process to combine to a paste like consistency.  Add olive oil to desired thickness.  Turns out I like mine a little thicker and DH likes his a little saucier.  Go figure!

Hope you love it as much as we did!  


This recipe is linked to:

Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday
Blessed With Grace Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap

Life as Mom Ultimate Recipe Swap  
We Are THAT Family Works For Me Wednesday 





12 comments:

Unknown said...

I also like using toasted walnuts in pesto. Anyway you do it, I LOVE pesto :)

Blessings!
Gail

Lisa@BlessedwithGrace said...

Looks like a great idea! Thanks for linking to TMTT.

Melissa said...

Sounds terrific to me! I wish the rest of my family liked pesto as much as I do! :) On the rare occasions that I've made it, I hear grumbles about "the green stuff."

Brenda said...

If you love pesto like we do, its worth growing your own basil. I've made it with walnuts and thats really good too.

Debbie said...

I make pesto with either walnuts or almonds, although I do love the taste of pine nut pesto. I leave out the parmesan, since I pile so much on my pasta, anyway :)

April@The 21st Century Housewife said...

That looks like a lovely pesto - delicious! Plus almonds are really, really good for you too!

KatiePerk said...

We both posted pesto recipes this week!! I love any type of pesto and have tried it with walnuts but not almonds. I am going to do this in the future!! Thanks for sharing!

Ginger said...

Yum! I've made it with walnuts, but never with almonds. I am praying for an abundance of basil so I can do this!

Julie said...

I just made a garlic scape and basil pesto that used almonds. I've read about walnuts, too. Pine nuts are so expensive but so good.

This looks delicious.

Amy @ Living The Domestic Life.com said...

Sounds great! Can't wait to give that a try!

Anonymous said...

I use walnuts often, but another money saving tip is to use part flat leaf Italian Parsley for some of the basil - I like the flavor & it is cheaper than the basil.

Hannah said...

Great tip! We love pesto...wishing I'd planted more basil!

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