First time making pesto…

[Anonymous]

Walnuts are a great sub for pine nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Walnuts are a great sub for pine nuts.

Good to know. Walnuts are probably cheaper too.

[Anonymous]

Quality oil is important!

[Anonymous]

This is classic Pesto Genovese(Basil Pesto)
4 cups packed basil, blanched briefly in boiling water and shocked in ice water
1⁄2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1⁄2 cup finely grated parmesan
1⁄4 cup pine nuts
3 tbsp. finely grated pecorino
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Coarse sea salt, to taste

Process basil, oil, parmesan, pine nuts, pecorino, and garlic in a food processor until smooth; season with salt. Blanching is important.

[Anonymous]

Or buy the Kirkland brand at Costco. It's excellent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to add pine nuts. Use good olive oil. And some grated parm.

Pistachios or walnuts are better.

[Anonymous]

Do I have to go to a farmers market to get big quantities of basil? I didn’t see it in my grocery stores thru the summer.

[Anonymous]

How did you make it bitter? Did you accidentally drop a lemon seed in there or something?

I'm surprised it turned out so bad. I eat vegan pesto all the time and even without cheese it's completely delicious (usually they use nutritional yeast but even without you'd still have a tasty garlicky-parsley-nutty paste). Maybe you're just not a good cook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is classic Pesto Genovese(Basil Pesto)
4 cups packed basil, blanched briefly in boiling water and shocked in ice water
1⁄2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1⁄2 cup finely grated parmesan
1⁄4 cup pine nuts
3 tbsp. finely grated pecorino
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Coarse sea salt, to taste

Process basil, oil, parmesan, pine nuts, pecorino, and garlic in a food processor until smooth; season with salt. Blanching is important.

The blanching is not important OP, unless you care about the looks of it. Unblanched basil = darker pesto, blanched pesto = bright green pesto. Dont stress about blanching since it seems youre a very beginner cook- just dump it all in the food processor and do what you can. Pesto is easy peasy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How did you make it bitter? Did you accidentally drop a lemon seed in there or something?

I'm surprised it turned out so bad. I eat vegan pesto all the time and even without cheese it's completely delicious (usually they use nutritional yeast but even without you'd still have a tasty garlicky-parsley-nutty paste). Maybe you're just not a good cook.

Low quality olive oil would make it bad.

I also do a lot of vegan pesto and have used pine nuts, walnuts, pistachios, or pumpkin seeds to good results. Almonds are okay, but recommend starting with slivers. Sunflower seeds was not a favorite but that's a personal taste thing. Pecans were delicious to me but it might not be universally appealing since their flavor is really unique.

I rarely use lemon, but I do use excellent extra virgin olive oil.

After making lots of variations of pesto with fresh basil from the garden over the summer, the Costco one just doesn't taste good anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, here. Thanks for the feedback. Obviously my biggest flub was forgetting the cheese. After tasting it again, it’s pretty obvious that it’s needed. I did remember the pine nuts, but maybe need some better oil too. It was a frantic attempt. Next batch will be better.

Don’t wing it

[Anonymous]

I sub walnuts for the pine nuts too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to add pine nuts. Use good olive oil. And some grated parm.

I actually did use pine nuts, but they weren’t roasted. Didn’t know Parmesan was needed.

That was in the recipe.

[Anonymous]

You need more parm than you think. And by parm I mean good quality, freshly grated parmigiano reggiano.