6 ms·

Home pesto maker here. It's not for the faint of heart. Each year I grow four basil plants - it takes close to an hour to completely de-leaf and de-stem just on

Home pesto maker here. It's not for the faint of heart. Each year I grow four basil plants - it takes close to an hour to completely de-leaf and de-stem just one plant. I end up with a stock pot full of leaves. Those are then ground with pine nuts (close to $7 for a small jar - I need 4-5 jars), close to a gallon of olive oil (the brand I use comes in gallons, so about $30), and lots of cheese (I honestly don't remember how much I spend on cheese). The result is great, but it's definitely a day's work plus close to $100.

zwily 4y ago
Yeah but how much do you end up with? A gallon of OO makes it sound like a lot…
williamdclt 4y ago
To balance your comment: I just use whatever basil I happen to have bought from the shop, whatever nuts or seeds I have lying aroung (almond, pumpkin seeds...), I always have extra-virgin olive oil and parmesan. It takes me maybe 5min start-to-finish to make enough pesto for a couple people, or I can buy more basil to make a bigger batch to freeze. It's not super-cheap (I use good olive oil), but I'd definitely call that "for the faint of heart": pesto is one of the easiest sauces you can make for pasta and is very forgiving (you can vary ingredients, texture, it's ). You don't need to make pesto by the kilogram :)