Classic Basil Pesto Sauce

This post covers how to make pesto sauce, how to store it, and more! If you’ve never made homemade pesto before, you’ve been missing out!

This a perfect summer recipe to use up all that basil in the garden! I swear basil multiplies overnight. I can’t keep ahead of it, but homemade pesto is one of my favorite ways to use it up!

Homemade Basil Pesto Sauce Recipe

I don’t know why, but I had never had pesto until college. At least I’m pretty sure I hadn’t. And I honestly don’t even remember who made it when I did finally have it. All I remember was that it was a basic pesto pasta and I loved it.

I’ll be the first to admit that I ate waaaaaay more than I should have. It was slightly nutty, cheesy, and super fresh. Could there be a better combo? We use pesto all the time now and we even make it a few different ways depending on how much of everything we have like our 15-Minute Pesto Pasta, pesto butter grilled cheese, creamy pesto chicken pizza,  or the bacon pesto grilled cheese sandwich contest I won with Tillamook. However, in the end this is our ultimate, absolute favorite classic pesto recipe.

A classic pesto recipe is easy enough to make, but storing is a bit tricky. I have two ways that I store it and a third that I’ve heard great things about but never tried it. But we can talk about storing it after we discuss the actual classic pesto recipe.

Basil Pesto Recipe Ingredients

This is such an easy pesto recipe! It requires minimal ingredients to whip up. Here’s what all goes into this homemade pesto sauce:

• Fresh Basil
• Garlic Cloves
• Pine Nuts
  • NOTE: The best substitutes for pine nuts are walnuts, almonds or cashews.
• Olive Oil
• Grated Parmesan Cheese
  • NOTE: The best substitute is pecorino romano cheese.
• Salt

The measurements for each can be found in the recipe card below.

How to Make Pesto Sauce

To start this homemade pesto recipe, I just heat up a skillet over medium heat, add both the garlic cloves and the pine nuts and let it cook until golden, shaking the pan occasionally. Then, I remove the nuts and allow the garlic to finish turning golden as well.

An added bonus is that the garlic slides right out of its skin when it’s toasted this way. I love that. So, yes you read right, toast the garlic in its thin skin and then remove after it’s golden.

Place everything except the cheese and salt in the bowl of a food processor or blender and pulse until smooth. Stir in the cheese and add salt to taste. Yes, making this classic pesto recipe is that easy. If you want to go totally authentic, you can use a mortar and pestle to blend the pesto together.

Welcome to the weekend, my friends! I’m planning to get out for a walk, read my book, cook and photograph some new dishes, and work on a puzzle with my boys. Nothing too exciting for anyone else, but it all sounds lovely to me right now. I hope that your weekend is filled with many of your favorite things too!

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK: Supercharge your cookout side dish game with this dill pickle potato salad. Classic tender potato salad gets a glow-up with scandalous amounts of dill pickles, pickle relish, pickle seasonings, and hard-boiled eggs.

This creamy corn with jalapeno will be your new cookout side dish go-to. The sweet pop of fresh corn is enrobed in a rich, creamy cheese and jalapeno sauce and pairs beautifully with just about anything you can cook on your grill from steaks to chicken to pork and beyond!

While zucchini isn’t usually a vegetable most folks crave, these zucchini fries are about to change that! Tender zucchini wedges are coated in a crunchy, crispy, utterly crave-worthy Parmesan breadcrumb coating to create these zucchini fries.

Buttery, tender, sweet yeast rolls are bursting with juicy blueberries and tart lemon glaze in these blueberry sweet rolls. They are a perfect weekend baking project.

Blueberry peach cobbler bursts with juicy, fresh peaches and the sweet pop of blueberries under a tender, golden brown cobbler crust. This homey, comforting dessert takes no time to whip up and tastes like pure summer.

Good luck resisting snickers ice cream: peanut butter ice cream swirled with luscious caramel sauce, and bursting with pieces of snickers bars. Sometimes you just need to indulge yourself!

Mock apple pie began as a thrifty way to make a sweet treat from pantry staples in the late 1800s. I served this pie to my husband a few nights ago and he loved it. The look on his face was priceless when I later told him there was no fruit in it. The flavor is reminiscent of a combination of pecan pie and apple pie and the whole family agrees it is delicious.

Good luck resisting snickers ice cream: peanut butter ice cream swirled with luscious caramel sauce, and bursting with pieces of snickers bars. Sometimes you just need to indulge yourself!

Candy Bar Ice Cream

There are many ice cream manufacturers who make some version of Snickers ice cream, but there’s nothing in the grocery store freezers that equals the deliciousness of homemade! Don’t be intimidated by the idea of making it either, it’s beyond simple!

And if you are chuffed by your success with the Snickers ice cream, you should definitely try out this Twix ice cream that’s bursting with chunks of cookies, caramel, and chocolate.

Don’t forget Nutty Bars Ice Cream too! It is a rich peanut butter ice cream loaded to the absolute max with chunks of Little Debbie’s classic Nutty Buddy Wafer Bars.

The most popular question I get is whether it’s possible to make ice cream without a machine. The answer is YES. You can make ice cream without a machine. Find the full directions here!

Snickers Ice Cream Recipe

To make this snickers ice cream recipe, you’ll

Weekly Menu Plan – Jul. 15 to Jul. 21

We are cruising through summer, and I don’t know about you, but my dinner menu planning is suffering…BIG TIME. We are either at the pool or out and about enjoying summer and most days dinner is an afterthought. Here is a weekly menu plan for you so your meal plan doesn’t have to suffer like mine!

Monday: Gorgonzola Steak Salad

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Tuesday: Creamy Pineapple Coconut Chicken Curry

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Wednesday: Cheesy Meatballs and Zucchini Skillet

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Thursday: Dutch Baby Pancake Recipe

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Friday: Baked Chicken Taquitos {Plus Airfryer Method!}

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Saturday: The BEST Dry Rub Smoked Chicken Wings

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Sunday: Our Favorite Steak Fajitas Marinade [+ Video]

READ: Weekly Menu Plan – Jul. 15 to Jul. 21

Honey Mustard Bacon Chicken Skillet [+Video]

This isn’t your normal one skillet recipe. This honey mustard bacon chicken skillet is healthier for a few reasons but still totally craveable!

Serve up this bold honey mustard chicken recipe with a loaf of crusty artisan bread and a bright, fresh tomato cucumber salad, and you have a winning dinner the whole family will love!

A while back, we made honey mustard bacon brats and let me tell you, they are delicious. Like major good. It’s hard to want a brat any other way now. But as Cade and I were cleaning up dinner he said, “That sauce tastes so good I want to eat it on everything!” and as he snagged one last piece of saucy bacon from the pan to gobble it down before washing the skillet, I had the idea.

This really would be good on anything. Like really. At first I was really going to go to town and make a crunchy chicken but Cade and I are trying really hard to make good eating choices during the week, which is difficult today as I just photographed the best, oh my goodness amazing pumpkin cookies ever and I can hear them calling my name from the kitchen, “Carrian, you know you could have just half a cookie and you’d feel so happy…”

Ingredients for Honey Mustard Bacon Chicken Skillet

Ok, I digress…back to this tasty one skillet chicken recipe! Here are the ingredients you will need:

• Chicken Thighs: You can use boneless chicken or use bone-in. If you use bone-in chicken, it will just need a little longer to cook through.
  • NOTE: Chicken breasts (boneless, skinless) also work great with this recipe if you want a more lean dinner.
• Water: helps with the base of the honey mustard sauce
• Honey: adds flavor and natural sweetness
• Dijon Mustard: any brand works great or you could go with spicy brown mustard too if you want a little kick
• Cilantro: adds a bright pop of freshness
• Bacon: because you never need a reason for bacon
• Olive Oil: helps finish off the sauce and sauteing
• Garlic: adds flavor

The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.