Home Made Fresh Pesto Sauce

Basil is plenty in this season. It is fresh, it is tangy, it is delicious. We all know the Italian pesto sauce. The basic ingredients are basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and cheese. Pesto sauce is sold all over the supermarkets in small jars and they are not bad. But I like to do my own sauce at home, without any chemicals or preservatives and without too much salt in it. Plus, this sauce is so easy to make, you will feel proud of yourselves! =)

The only thing is that I don't add any cheese to this sauce because I don't want it to go bad. We will keep the sauce in air tight jars that have been sterilized in boiling water. It keeps for at least 4 months unopened in the fridge. After you open your jars, I recommend you to try and consume it in 5-6 weeks at most. That is why when I make this sauce, I put them in small jars.

This is my second year in making pesto sauce and this time it is better than my last year's sauce. So, I will write the recipe that makes two small jars. If you want to prepare more than this, just double the ingredients.

We need a big blender with chopping blades. After we boil our jars that is. This step is very important as it will affect whether your sauce will go bad or not. Do not neglect this step. Believe me, I learned the hard way! Now we're ready to go.

Ingredients:
3 big bunches of fresh basil
75 gr pine nuts (can be more)
1/2 - 1 glass of extra virgin olive oil
6 big cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of salt

How to:
1. Wash your basil properly and drain them. Peel the garlic and chop them into two-three pieces. Put your basil, garlic, pine nuts and salt into the blender and start mixing.
2. While the blender is on, pour the olive oil from the top slowly until it reaches the perfect consistency. It takes approximately 5 minutes and almost a glass of olive oil to achieve it.
3. Taste your pesto sauce and maybe add a little bit more salt or nuts or oil. It is up to your taste to decide at this step. For me, the ingredients above made the perfect mixture.
4. Pour the sauce into the jars and seal with air tight caps. Put them in the fridge.

SOME DISHES YOU CAN MAKE WITH YOUR PESTO SAUCE:
1. Fettucini with pesto and parmesan cheese.
2. Serve with grilled chicken or beef.
3. Bake chicken pieces with pesto sauce and some milk/cream.
4. Add milk/cream and cheese to your pesto sauce and cook your chicken breast pieces inside it.
5. Spread over bread slices, put some tomatoes and feta cheese on top and toast in the oven for a delicious snack/appetizer in dinner parties.