Everyone in our family including my 3.5 year old daughter and my 13 month old toddler love pasta with pesto sauce. My daughter calls is “green sauce”. The store bought ones don’t retain the fresh basil smell and I have no control over the amount of oil and cheese that is added to it. Every time I find fresh basil leaves in our neighborhood Trader Joe’s, I am sure to pick a bunch and run it through the processor for some yummiculous pesto sauce.

I make it very less oil and no cheese as I freeze them into cubes. Once they are frozen, I transfer them into zip locks, for ease of use. Freezing them into cubes makes it easy to thaw only as many as needed, instead of the whole container.
Also, I almost always make pasta with veggies. Veggies are sauteed or grilled, so there is always a little oil used for that. One of the reason, I make the sauce with very little oil.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves. (hard stems cut)
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 4 medium sized garlic
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Salt to taste
• Lemon juice (optional)

Method

Wash and remove the hard stems from basil.
Put the basil in the food processor.
Add olive oil as the processor is running.
Add pine nuts and garlic.
If the mixture is too thick, add water or some more oil.
You can also blend it in a blender if you don’t have a food processor. Comes out just fine.

Immediately transfer into freezer cubes.

Pesto sauce can be poured over boiled pasta. I also throw in few sauteed broccoli and asparagus. Makes for a delicious and healthy meal.


Tips taken from Taste Buddies and No Fear Entertaining Blog.