Pesto
3 T pine nuts toasted in a 300 oven until fragrant and lightly browned
2 to 4 cloves of fresh garlic
2 cups fresh basil leaves
2 oz parmesan cheese grated...or just chunked
1 Table spoon fresh lemon jucie

Olive oil to the consistency you like....about 1/3 cup...or more.

Put all but the oil into a food processor and pulse to combine, and while the processor is running add the oil until it is the consistency you like.

I don't know about the price of pinenuts in the U.S. but they're very expensive here. You can use other nuts and other nuts so experiment to see what you like, or vary according to the seasons. Basil is wonderful when it's in season but now, I might try walnuts, sage, garlic, parmesan and oil. It's all better than shop bought. Almonds are good too. I love pesto used as a "sandwich filler" between 2 flattened sliced of pork fillet, pan-fried.

Just some additional considerations:

There are veritable on-line tomes out there about how to keep your pesto green.

A consideration for storing is to cover the surface of the prepared pesto with a thin film of olive oil or plastic wrap to prevent oxidation.

Two, blanching (cue basil dissertations). My own personal experience is that blanching lessens the intensity of my pesto. I make a ton of it and then freeze for use in minestrone, sauces, etc. and a dark pesto doesn't bother me. For some, it is a visual variable. One test/results (some of the comments are interesting too) about blanching if you care The Kitchn - Blanch/No Blanch Basil Results

Third, I was just reading about toasting pine nuts. I've had success in the oven and have used a skillet too (a lot of attention). Just because I'm curious, I'm probably going to try this method next Serious Eats - Toasting Nuts in Microwave

Last, if you have time and no food processor, you can use the old fashioned route of mortar and pestle. It'll be a little rougher, but you'll burn some calories and it is still very good:)

Good luck!

Cathy in SWPA

I use Marcella Hazan's recipe, but I cut the salt. You can find it on the web.

The lemon I put in my pesto keeps it green, and I store it in the freezer. I freeze in plastic ice cube trays and when frozen, pop out the cubes and keep in a plastic bag....and for larger amounts I have tiny 1/4 cup plastic containers. It stays green in the freezer and for a long time in the refrigerator.

Pine nuts have become ridiculously expensive. I won't buy anything except Mediterranean. Whole Foods used to carry Italian pine nuts, but now they're all from China. No thanks!

Mediterranean pine nuts

@CindyMac -- they are ridiculously expensive, but I splurge. I have a tree nut allergy but can eat pine nuts; that said, there's always a little seed of doubt there.

@tete_a_tete -- I probably should clarify that what I freeze isn't technically pesto. It's actually just basil and some olive oil that I can add other ingredients to/keep foundational. BTW, I like your user name:) I hope you enjoy your pesto!

Cathy in SWPA

Here is my recipe:

4 oz. pine nuts (pignoli) (1/2 cup)

4-6 cloves garlic (depending on size)

4 oz. fresh basil (2 cups packed)
3/4 tsp Kosher salt, or to taste

1-1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

approx. 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 oz. freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, aged
at least 2 years (1/2 cup grated)

Spread the pine nuts in a metal baking dish and bake
them at 325° for 8-10 minutes, stirring
several times. They must be
watched closely to prevent burning.
Remove from oven and set aside.

Peel the garlic cloves and cut into at least four
pieces each. Put all the pieces into a
small food processor and pulse until the garlic is finely chopped. Begin adding the basil leaves, and process
them with the garlic until they are finely chopped. Add the salt and pepper and some of the oil, and continue adding
the basil leaves until all have been puréed.
Add enough oil to keep the mixture in a paste form without excess
oil. Add the pine nuts and pulse a few
times (or process on very low speed) until the pine nuts have been finely
chopped but not puréed.

Remove the mixture to a mixing bowl and stir in the
Parmesan cheese. Add additional oil, if
necessary, and adjust the salt and pepper to taste.

Yields two cups.
I prefer to store it in two separate 8 oz. jars, and I add a small layer
of olive oil on the top to seal the mixture from air.

I prefer the pine nuts to be crunchy instead of pureed, even though that is not traditional. I also do not puree the mixture with the Parmesan cheese, and so mine has a coarser texture than most.

Personally, I like walnuts better than pine nuts in pesto, but as stated above, there are lots of other nuts you can use. You can also use other greens (kale, parsley, etc.) and just a bit of basil if that's all you have. My favorite pesto is nasturtium leaves (no basil needed) and walnuts.

My fave is Molly Katzen's from the Moosewood cookbook - when I haven't any pine nuts (which is often), I sub walnuts. - & I also often add some fresh oregano or marjoram as well. I drop in the garlic cloves first & process until minced before adding the basil - as per original directions in the book. & I make it in my Cuisinart processor & store in glass canning jars under oil. It freezes beautifully as well. Here's a version I found online...

Mollie Katzen’s Walnut Pesto

Recipe by California Walnut Board

• Yield: 1 cups
• Prep: 10 mins
• Cook: 0 mins

Ingredients

3 cups fresh basil leaves - packed

2-3 large cloves garlic

1/3 cup California walnuts, lightly toasted

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste

1/4teaspoon pepper, or to taste

Optional: additional extra virgin olive oil (for storage)

Instructions

1. Place the basil leaves and garlic in a food processor or blender, and mix well. Add the walnuts, and continue to blend until the nuts are finely ground.
2. Keep the machine running as you drizzle in the olive oil. When you have a smooth paste, transfer to a bowl, and stir in the Parmesan cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. If you are not going to use the pesto right away, place in a container that has a tight-fitting lid. Smooth out the top surface of the pesto, and pour on enough olive oil to cover it completely. This creates an air-proof seal that helps preserve it well. Cover tightly and store in the refrigerator.

As a change up to traditional pesto, you might try this alternative to Genovese pesto, called Pesto di Trapani (Trapanese Pesto). It's from Sicily -- I stayed in Trapani last month and had it for the first time. Here's my tweak on Lydia Bastianich's recipe.

a pint or 3/4 pound cherry tomatoes (if you must use regular, you must squeeze the excess juice and peel them first)
12 pesto leaves (a good handful)
2 to 3 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup blanched, unsalted almonds
1/4 tsp red chile pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt (I brought back some from the Trapani salt fields but sea salt is fine)

1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup good parmigiano reggiano
1 pound pasta (traditionally busiate but any pasta works -- I recommend the organic Garafalo casarecce from Costco )

Toast the almonds. Throw all the first set of ingredients into the food processor. Pulse lightly until fine, then add the olive oil slowly until a liquidy paste forms. Don't overprocess, as of course the basil can turn bitter. Here, in this case, the tomatoes help avoid this situation. You can save this for a couple of days, but I immediately toss with one pound cooked pasta and the parm.

I also use the Moosewood Recipe and freeze it in blobs to place in freezer bags. After it became the norm that all pine nuts available were from China, I started looking for an organic, more local source. I found a couple of places in the SW USA that wild harvest pine nuts. They are a bit more expensive, but I buy in bulk and freeze. It's not like you need gallons of them for pesto and there is no comparison between these and the Chinese nuts!
one source - there are others

Interesting article about harvesting pine nuts...

Pine nut trivia

The trivia was interesting, although when it said that pinons were easier to harvest/shell, I was trying to imagine then just how difficult European ones must be. Here in NM, the pinons generally only produce nuts every 7 years or so, probably also why they are so darn expensive. The trees on my property looked like they were going to produce this year as we had a wet May but the rain that helped to ease the drought in the rest of the state missed my land for most of the summer.

For reasons I can't remember I use a mix of basil and parsley. I usually use toasted walnuts and Asiago - both for price reasons. I have also made pesto out of other herbs - sage, hyssop or parsley. And have used pepitas or almonds. I freeze it in the small canning jars with a layer of oil on the surface.

Recently my nine year old incredibly picky niece decided real parmaesan is superior to the stuff in the green bottle. A reverse of her usual preference for processed/store bought over real food. However this means an indulgent daddy is making more frequent (1.5 hr) trips to the italian grocery store - with side benefits of cheese to Grammy and Aunt Amanda. Yum! So I am ready for a final batch of parsley or sage pesto.

I have also made pesto witb a mixture of spinach and parsley...it's not basil pesto, but it's good on a plate of pasta.

Sage pesto sounds interesting, and I foundthis recipe for it. It uses more parsley than sage, but fortunately I have more parsley than sage in my back yard, and so I can easily make this. Not sure if I have walnuts in the freezer, but I do have walnut oil. I also have a fair amount of Asiago (I consider this a staple) that I could use, as I think it would go better with with sage than Parmesan.

Sounds yummy.....and remember your time is worth sometning.

Wow, thank you for all these wonderful ideas. Bit overwhelming really but I will work through them, one at a time.

I've started using walnuts or pistachios instead of pine nuts:

Making Pesto? Hold the Pine
Nuts

NY
Times Op-Ed by Jonathan C. Slaght Oct. 19, 2015

(Excerpted) MINNEAPOLIS — AT this time of year, kitchens across
North America are filled with the aroma of freshly picked basil, fistfuls of
peeled garlic bulbs, hunks of Parmesan, cruets of olive oil and jars of pine
nuts. It’s pesto season.

Mixing
these ingredients into a delicious sauce for use throughout the winter months is
an end-of-summer tradition. The tiny, delectable pine nut is often viewed as
essential to a classic pesto “alla Genovese,” but it is the most vexing
ingredient — for the high cost of even a small packet or jar of
them.

They
also come at another kind of price: The pine nut industry may be contributing to
the crash of an ecosystem.

According to the International Union for Conservation of
Nature, a majority of pine nuts imported into the United
States come from the Korean pine tree, a
keystone species found primarily in the southern parts of the Russian far east.
The temperate rain forest of this wild corner of Russia represents a mere 1
percent of the country’s territory yet contains about a quarter of its
endangered vertebrate species.

....An
ever-expanding road network, driven by selective logging, is exposing more and
more of the region to the covetous reach of pine nut harvesters. Once collected,
the cones are shucked and the nuts, still in their shells, are sold to Chinese
merchants, who haul truckloads across the border to China.
From there, they are shipped to overseas markets.

Depending on the market price, local traders will pay
about $6 for a sack of Korean pine cones, which can hold on average about 125
cones. Last year, I (the author) encountered a group of collectors in the forest that had
filled 4,000 sacks — half a million cones — in just six weeks. At the peak of
the harvest season, the forests are populated with thousands of collectors in
hundreds of makeshift camps.

The
global demand is making this harvest unsustainable. The entire Korean pine ecosystem (which supports numerous species depending on the pine nuts for winter food) could collapse if it continues.

I also use walnuts because I always have them on hand.

I think "pesto" most broadly is basically some sort of herb or vegetable, pureed in oil to a loose paste/sauce consistency. The herb can be basil, but can be other stuff - I also like sage, a friend likes arugula.

Everything else - garlic, nuts, cheese, S&P - is optional. My arugula-loving friend omits garlic and cheese, she just wants to taste the arugula. Instead of garlic you could try ginger. Etc.

My usual pesto is basil and sage (because they grow in my garden), processed with olive oil, then add whatever nuts I have (usually walnuts or almonds, and I usually toast them first), garlic, and parmesan or romano cheese, kosher salt, black pepper.

I have made spinach pesto...garlic pignoles parm and oil....pretty good....and I have made roasted red pepper pesto.....that needs some ancho chili or a generous pinch of red pepper flakes.