It's very good with walnuts too!

I use sunflower seeds, too, when I don't have pine nuts. Most of the pine nuts these days are from China, and I try to avoid buying any food (or anything else) that comes from there.

Now that you have the bug....try variations...like spinach...or dried tomato and basil and romano...or parsley, roasted red pepper and blue cheese....ro feta...
Add some fresh oregano...or just use parsley and a little rosemary....
You could go crazy with variations...AND it freezes well too!
Linda c

Congrats!! You're on your way to growing your own basil.

I make it with pecans and asiago and it's also delicious.
Basil, btw, is extremely easy to grow. I am not a very good gardener ( too inattentive and I hate hot weather) but this year, I bought another huge decorative pot, a big bag of miracle grow and some basil plants ( a $4 peat pot has three+ plants in it that you rip apart with your hands and discard the peat) and have had basil for months.

It's easier to grow in the ground but I wanted it right outside the kitchen door and that area, is a popular dog pee place, hence the higher-than-the-dogs-pot.

Next year I am going to grow different basil varieties other than sweet basil, but I did grow lemon basil this year and it is amazingly lemony.
From what I read, Genovese is the best all around sweet.

Yum. We froze some garlic scape pesto (w/ almonds & parmesan), but haven't gotten basil yet. It doesn't do well for me, but the u-pick has tons. Last year we picked two grocery bags. I made pesto with every nut in the house, sunflower seeds, dried tomatoes, roasted red pepper...it was all good.

Yup! Now that you've discovered it you'll become the "pesto lady" like me!
Anytime there's a pot luck I'm asked to my pesto pasta. Top it with halved cherry tomatoes and some whole basil leaves, tucked around the edges, and it's a beautiful dish!
I also bribe my Chiropractor with it each month! It shuts him right up about bugging me about working in the garden too much!LOL Nancy

The current issue of Saveur magazine has a great article on pesto and its many, many variations. One of the sidebars states that if you can't afford or find Italian pine nuts to use walnuts soaked in very hot water for an hour. Says it's preferred to Chinese pine nuts.

Well, i definitely won't be using walnuts. Bad bad juju right there for me.

Pecans yes. Peanuts yes, although I'm not so sure peanuts would be good.

Sunflower seeds? I'll grab a bag of those when I head to the store later!

I haven't had a good basil crop this year. The summer has been too brutal. But I'm so glad you're having fun with pesto. I have a mortar and pestle, and have let my grandson help make pesto with that. He has fun pounding the garlic and the basil into smithereens.

I'm another one that's too cheap to use pine nuts, so I usually use walnuts. I never have soaked them, though. I didn't know I needed to. Why do they say to soak them?

Sally

I always have walnuts on hand for baking. I don't soak them for pesto or anything else. I also don't know why you would need to. Maybe someone can enlighten us.

Apparently the soaking makes them less bitter, and Saveur says soaked walnuts are preferred over Chinese pine nuts.

Several years ago BC (before critters), could plant a garden IN the ground... now have to use containers since groundhogs just munch eveerything away. I bought a 6-pack of little basil plants and planted 3 on either side of the step off the deck. By this time that summer, they were TREES... and the aroma, even without touching plants, was fabulous. As weather started to turn cooler, knew I'd lose them with first frost. My sister told me to make a meesa pesto and freeze in ice cube trays. Actually, partially made pesto... basil, garlic, oil... think saved nuts (I used walnuts) and cheese for just before using. Freezing basil plain... goes pretty gacky, but in oil it stays green. Also never totally freezes... kinda hard-ish slush, but pops out of ice cube trays into another container. Take 1-2 cubes out of freezer while pasta is cooking and it's ready to toss once pasta is cooked.