Homemade Pesto

More than just a booster for pasta, homemade pesto is a versatile addition to any condiment arsenal. The herbaceous green sauce is equally at home coating blistered green beans as it is swooshed under lamb meatballs, dolloped on top of scrambled eggs, swirled into soup, or slathered on zucchini fritters.

You will need a food processor for this basil pesto recipe. If you don’t have one, we highly recommend this as an excuse to get one; it’s a good investment you’ll use forever and ever and ever. Here’s how it’ll help when making pesto: To make the sauce creamy, you’ll want to work the oil into the pesto slowly. Letting the machine run while drizzling the oil through the feed spout makes this possible for anyone who is less than a master of balance and agility. But, if you’re a sucker for the old way of doing things, go ahead and pull out your mortar and pestle.

The other key to great pesto is blitzing the garlic and pine nuts, allowing those ingredients to break down fully, before incorporating the basil. Adding the delicate herb last prevents it from being overworked and helps maintain its verdant color and flavor. If you’d like a little heat, add a dash of black pepper or crushed red pepper flakes. Depending on how you want to use the pesto, you may also wish to thin it out with ice water or lemon juice.

If you’ve got a big bushel of farmers market basil, feel free to scale up the recipe and freeze the pesto in batches using an ice cube tray. Or, use this recipe as a blueprint to use up other ingredients, like cilantro or arugula in place of the basil; cashews, pecans, pistachios, pepitas, or sunflower seeds for the pine nuts; or Pecorino Romano or another hard Italian cheese for the parm.