This is my spouse’s award-winning pesto recipe. It’s loosely based on the “Blender Pesto” recipe in The Classic Italian Cook Book: The art of Italian cooking and the Italian art of eating by Marcella Hazan, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980. Kari altered the ingredients and it’s truly amazing. Make a bunch and freeze it into small cups or ice cube trays so you can easily have pesto throughout the winter.

I’ve also added a sage pesto recipe further below, as we had a bumper crop of sage last fall.

Basil Pesto:
6 c. fresh basil leaves (with larger leaves gently torn into 2 or more pieces depending on size)
1 1/2 c. olive oil
6 tbsp. pine nuts
12 cloves garlic, lightly crushed with a heavy knife handle and peeled
3 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 tbsp. freshly grated Romano pecorino cheese
9 tbsp. butter, softened to room temperature

Put the basil, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic, and salt in a blender and mix at high speed. Stop from time to time and scrape the ingredients down toward the bottom of the bowl with a spatula.

When the ingredients are evenly blended, pour into a bowl and beat in the two grated cheeses by hand. (This gives a better texture than if you put the cheese in the blender.) When the cheese is evenly mixed, add the butter.

Freeze in small cups or ice cube trays. One batch fills approximately 7 4-oz. cups.

For ice cube-sized portions, dump them once frozen into a freezer-safe bag for easier storage. When ready to use, thaw 2-3 cubes for 2 servings of pasta. The original recipe recommends adding the pesto to a tablespoon of the hot water from boiling the pasta, though we usually just try to place the frozen pesto close enough to the pots on the stove so they thaw quickly and then mix them with the hot noodles to thaw the rest. Putting them in the microwave will make the cheese and butter go wonky and you’ll have a weird consistency, so don’t do that.

Sage Pesto:
Based on this recipe — but I’ve made some modifications to add more olive oil than the original.

1 c. fresh sage leaves
1 c. fresh parsley (or substitute more sage if your sage crop did better like ours did)
4-5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/2 c. chopped walnuts and/or pine nuts
3 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. sea salt or kosher salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
3/4 c. olive oil
1 c. grated parmesan cheese

Put everything except the parmesan in a food processor and reduce it to a gooey pulp. Pour into a bowl and add the parmesan. Divide into cups or ice cube trays for freezing. A double batch makes about 8 4-oz. cups.