Recipe Details
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Servings: 8 servings
- Yield: About 1½ cups
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Pesto
Every spring in West Virginia, when the hills finally shook off winter, Uncle Ken and Aunt Sara walked out to their garden with trays of basil plants. It was their ritual—Ken working the soil with steady hands, Sara talking to the seedlings like they were old friends. By midsummer, the basil grew thick and fragrant, filling the air with that unmistakable Italian‑family promise: pesto season was coming. When harvest day arrived, Sara gathered the leaves in huge bowls, enough to cover the kitchen table. She made fresh pesto the same way her mother taught her—bright green, garlicky, silky, and absolutely overflowing.
But she never made just a little. Sara froze container after container, stacking them in the freezer like emerald bricks. She wasn’t preparing for a quiet dinner; she was preparing for Christmas Eve. In their Italian family, Christmas Eve was a full‑house event—cousins, siblings, neighbors, anyone who wandered in hungry. And every year, without fail, Sara brought out her frozen summer pesto, thawed it, and served it like a gift from June. The basil planted in spring became the flavor of their biggest winter gathering, a tradition that tied the whole family together from one season to the next.
- 1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
- 1 cup packed fresh parsley leaves
- ¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup walnut pieces (optional — can omit)
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ⅔ cup olive oil
- Prep the herbs Remove stems from the basil and parsley. Wash leaves thoroughly and drain well.
- Blend the pesto In a food processor, combine basil, parsley, garlic, walnuts (if using), salt, and pepper. Process until finely chopped.
- Add the oil With the processor running, slowly pour in olive oil through the chute until smooth and well combined.
- Add cheese (optional) You can stir in the Parmesan now, but if using the pesto for pasta, add the cheese later while tossing — it prevents clumping.
- Store or serve Use immediately, or transfer to an airtight container. Refrigerate up to 1 week, or freeze up to 6 months. (It keeps well even longer in the freezer.)
