Bright Green Pesto and Its Many Uses Recipe (2024)

Blanching basil leaves is crazy. There is a simple way to make and keep pesto bright green: don't use a mortar and pestle. When using a Cuisinart, never chop the basil without some cheese, pine nuts or oil. These ingredients seal the green of the basil in as it chops and coats it. Add less olive oil in the mixture, but store with a layer of olive oil on top of the pesto keeping it anaerobic & green. Pour off oil and use needed amount, returning a layer of oil to store the rest.

I add a small handful of parsley leaves with the basil leaves; it helps to retain the green color.

Use a colander for the blanching -- works like a charm. If we use walnuts, they are great toasted. 1/4 c of evoo is plenty. And works well w/ or w/o the parm.

I'm disappointed with the loss of flavor compounds from the blanching process. The finished pesto seemed to be milder than I am accustomed to and sniffing the blanching bath revealed where the flavor had gone. The spicy, licorice-y notes had leached out.

When the basil is young and sweet, I don't blanch. But basil from plants that are more mature (ready to bud and flower) can be bitter. Bite a leaf to see, and if it is bitter, go ahead and blanch. I like to blanch the garlic at the same time. Add a little fresh, unblanched parsley if you like.

I roasted the Garlic in Oilve Oil and used 6 cloves. Also used the Oil from this Roasting Process. Delicious. Next time, I’ll try adding a bit of Lemon Zest.

I followed the blanching technique and it gave us green pesto. Strangely enough the water for blanching and the ice water took the brown color

After the Ice bath use a salad spinner to dry the basil

I never bother with the blanching. Just toss in the nuts with the garlic. Then the basil leaves. Tastes just as good!

Any suggestions to substitute for the cheese? I love pesto but need a dairy free option

Blanching basil briefly is a common technique in Italy to reduce bitterness. It also allows you to add less oil as the leaves will be wet even after pressing dry in a kitchen towel

No it’s not crazy. I have made this many times and it comes out creamy and delicious. I may experiment with a mix of raw and blanched and see how that goes, although I’ve never noticed a loss of flavor but it’s possible there is.

Tastes great and is very GREEN!

I toasted the walnuts

I just made this but I did not have pine nuts (and my husband is allergic to walnuts). So I used shelled pepitas instead. It came out amazing, although it needed some extra olive oil to set the consistency correct.

I admittedly didn’t do the blanche step, but still loved the result. Used half basil and half mint as well as walnuts. I mixed with an orzo/zucchini dish and didn’t think the color was an issue. I will try the blanche at some point, but just didn’t have it in me tonight. Still delish!

I have been making peso for over 30 years and I have never blanched it so I thought I would try it. I followed my regular recipe which uses some fresh lemon and extra garlic. I used raw cashews as I did not have any pine nuts. As others have said, I found the pesto to have a less bold basil flavor but still good. The blanch water is very flavorful and makes a delicious tea or soup water or… The pesto did not oxidize, which I like a lot. So it is a trade off and I will likely do it again.

Wow. I've tried a number of different recipes for basil pesto, and this is by far my favorite. Blanching the leaves makes a huge difference in the color of the pesto, and the leaves seem to grind up better for the blanching. I had a lot of basil to harvest from my garden so I made multiple batches of this. I put the pesto in 8 oz. jelly jars, half full to allow for adding the cheese and garlic later and for headroom, and have frozen them. What a great way to preserve the taste of summer!

My Italian family always blanches the basil in order to moderate the bitterness of basil. The lovely green is a pleasant side effect.

This is the last time I'm trying this method of making pesto as there is truly too much flavor loss. You start out with wonderfully aromatic flavorful basil and end up with bland, bright green pesto. Not worth the trade off.

I had a garden full of basil and decided to make pesto. I had heard that you could keep the beautiful green if you blanched the basil, but I wasn’t sure for how long. After finding this recipe and seeing the stars, I decided to follow the whole thing. My only amendment was to add a smidge of fresh rosemary and some freshly ground black pepper. Beautiful and delicious!

How much is two cups of basil leaves weigh? I want to buy some fresh basil and they sell it by weight. TIA

I've tried many pesto recipes and blanching them really keeps it green, simple. This is a great recipe, and amendable to tweaking for taste. It's great if you have a lot of basil and want to make big batches to freeze -- I made a quadruple batch and it came out fine (made seven 8-oz jars).