Pesto Sauce

I have a pot of basil growing in my garden and last night, I had a craving for pesto sauce to go with some pasta. First I wondered how healthy it might be and then whether or not it was cost effective to make your own. The ingredients are as follows:

basil leaves
pine nuts (or walnuts) (so not good for people with a nut allergy)
olive oil
Parmesan cheese
garlic

I suppose it depends on whether or not you use these items in other recipes. This is more of a summer dish and so you could grow basil in a pot in the garden or in a window box. That would make it cost effective. I think that you would need the entire window box because it takes quite a lot of basil to make the sauce (1 cup of leaves for two to 3 servings).

Many people use olive oil already and if you use it sparingly it should last a long time. I have found that it is cheaper in cans (larger quantity, therefore cheaper per unit).

Pine nuts are not that expensive but I wonder what else you could use them in. Some accidentally got into my granola and they were fine but I think they may be quite oily. Perhaps they would be good in salads as well.

Garlic can easily be grown in the window box with the garlic. I say this but I have never tried to grow garlic. I shall look it up and report back! I don't think it is that expensive and many people already use it in other recipes.

Parmesan cheese can be expensive. It is cheaper if you buy it in blocks and not already grated!

So, here is my recipe. I halved the quantities in the Silver Palate Cookbook (p. 80, 1979) but still found that there was too much olive oil. I would suggest trying it with 1/4 cup of oil instead.

1C basil leaves, washed and patted dry
2 gook sized cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1/2C chopped walnuts or pine nuts
1/2C olive oil (I suggest 1/4 or a 1/3 C)
1/2C grated Parmesan cheese
(1T Romano cheese - I didn't use this cheese and it was fine)
salt and pepper to taste

I find this enough with a bowl of pasta to feed me in the evening but if you want to flesh out the meal, you could have a salad to start with.

My courgettes (zucchinis) are growing in leaps and bounds so I will be looking for recipes. Any suggestions?