Switching from (expensive) pine-nuts to others greatly reduces the cost. And what can you say -- Pesto is fantastic.
Ingredients (12 half-pints, frozen)- 24 cups fresh basil
- ~4 cups olive oil
- 4 cups of nuts (pine nuts, walnuts, almonds...)
- 4 heads of garlic, peeled
- Work in small batches: 4 cups basil, olive oil, ½ cup nuts, ~6 garlic cloves.
- Put garlic in a food processor and process until fairly fine.
- Pack in basil and pulse, then puree until finely chopped.
- Add nuts and while continuing to process, drizzle in olive oil until smooth.
- Scrape out processor into large bowl, cover surface with plastic wrap while continuing to process batches until completed.
- Fill half-pint jars and freeze the jars.
This is a very free-form recipe. Taste each batch and modify quantities to meet your desires.
Note that we freeze these. With the amount of olive oil in each, they would go rancid if we attempted to can them.