One of my favorite recipes that you'll find in my upcoming cookbook, Recipes for Longevity, is pesto.Â
I first started making pesto with my grandma when I was in my teens, and I've been making it with my mom every summer since then.Â
Pesto is featured in several of the recipes in my cookbook like the pesto chicken stuffed peppers and the shrimp pesto pasta with roasted broccoli.Â
I also use it in soups, spaghetti sauce, Italian dishes, on chicken or roasted vegetables, and as a sandwich spread.Â
It's packed with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties from the basil, olive oil, and walnuts, making it both a flavorful and healthy addition to recipes.Â
I almost had to buy store-bought pesto to test the recipes for my cookbook because we ran out from last year, but I could not get myself to buy it after seeing that every single jar that I looked at (about 6 different brands) was made with inflammatory vegetable oils (sunflower oil, canola oil, and soybean oil) and some even had added sugars. Fortunately the farmers markets started selling basil just in time so I was able to make it and not have to buy it from the store 😅
Now is the perfect time to head to the farmers market to get basil for making pesto! The recipe below calls for 4 cups of packed basil leaves, which is equal to about 1 bunch of basil from the farmers market. We usually buy about 8 bunches of basil to make enough pesto to last the entire year.
Here's the pesto recipe that you'll find in my cookbook: