The following recipe is for home made Pesto Sauce, which you can add to pasta to make a side dish for your main, or have it as a lunch meal.

For our family this is cheaper than buying premade bottles off the supermarket shelves and we find it a fresh and flavorsome alternative. It’s now one of our favorites and hopefully it will become one of your family favorites as well. Please let me know what you think!

2 bunches of Sweet Basil Leaves (approx 3 cups off loose packed leaves, see bottom of this Hub for description)

¼ cup of Olive oil

¼ cup of Pine Nuts

¼ cup of Parmesan Cheese

Squeeze of Lemon Juice (1 teaspoon will be heaps)

Pinch of Salt and Pepper to taste

Pick the leaves off the Basil stalks and wash. Put these into a container to blend with a hand/stick blender or food processor. Drizzle over the olive oil.

Now blitz the Basil leaves with the stick blender or food processor.

Add the pine nuts and blitz again until smooth. Add the Parmesan Cheese and blend again. Add the lemon juice and stir with a spoon. The lemon juice stops the basil from browning. Finally add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste.

If you find your mixture is too dry or stiff, add a little more olive oil and stir with a spoon.

You can add the mix to about 500g (1 pound) of cooked pasta. It will save in your refrigerator for a couple of days when covered.

Click here to download this recipe in Adobe PDF format.