Pesto is usually made with heaps of fresh basil but for a change, or to use up a glut of fresh herbs, make a fresh herb pesto. Use any of the soft herbs - tarragon, basil, mint, chervil, chives etc and avoid the harder or very strong flavoured ones as these can over power the pesto.
Some herbs are much stronger in flavour than others so choose carefully and always add a good handful of flat leaf parsley which helps to round up the different flavours.
Herb pesto is delicious in hot pasta, added to soups or stocks, as a paste for grilled meats and fish or can be blended with butter to create herb butters.
Herb pesto is delicious in hot pasta, added to soups or stocks, as a paste for grilled meats and fish or can be blended with butter to create herb butters.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
- Handful each of 3 or four different soft leaf herbs
- Large handful flat leaf parsley
- ½ clove garlic, peeled
- ½ cup/100ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Preparation:
- Place the all the herbs and garlic into a food processor and pulse several times.
- With the motor running continuously, slowly add the olive oil through the top funnel until a thick (but not oily) paste is formed. You may need less oil than the recipe states depending on which herbs you use.
- Add the Parmesan and pulse two or three times.
