Jamie's Dinners
By Jamie Oliver
5 mins
Super easy
serves 4
About the recipe
This easy, beautiful pesto recipe is absolutely bursting with fresh herby flavour.
Recipe From
Ingredients
½ a clove of garlic
1 big bunch of fresh basil
1 handful of pine nuts
1 good handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
extra virgin olive oil
optional: 1 lemon
Top Tip
You may think it’s nice to toast the pine nuts until they’re golden, to give them a nutty taste, but the really good pestos I’ve tasted in Italy just have them very lightly toasted, to give a creaminess rather than a nuttiness.
Method
- Peel the garlic, then pound in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of sea salt.
- Pick, roughly chop and add the basil leaves, then bash to a paste (or pulse in a food processor).
- Add the pine nuts (very lightly toast first, if you like) to the mixture and pound again, then stir in half the Parmesan.
- Drizzle in some oil – you need just enough to bind the sauce and get it to an oozy consistency.
- Add most of the remaining cheese, then season to perfection with salt and black pepper. Have a taste, and keep adding a bit more cheese or oil until you are happy with the taste and consistency.
- Add a squeeze of lemon juice at the end to give it a little twang, if you like, but it’s not essential.
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