EASY, BUDGET FRIENDLY Basil Pesto Pasta recipe made with fresh basil and almonds! This easy, healthy homemade recipe makes delicious basil pesto that can be served over pasta, as appetizers or on a sandwich! Pine nuts are expensive so this is a much more budget friendly pesto. Recipe also includes a vegan alternative.
I’m in love with this Basil Pesto. Big time.
Growing up, pesto wasn’t big in our house. It’s one of those things that I honestly can’t even remember having until I was in my 20’s. Then I started to make it and fell in love. Then when started to grow our own basil and could pick it and immediately make the freshest pesto possible, then I really fell in love with it.
Even though we’re still growing vegetables under the greenhouse on the roof, there’s no herbs growing there. All our herbs are growing inside our loft thanks to hydroponic gardening, or more specially our AeroGarden. Can we take a look at how bushy this indoor herb and small vegetable garden is getting? There’s basil, mint, thyme, cherry tomatoes and jalapeno peppers. If you have seen these AeroGardens and were wondering if they work well, they do! We’ve had ours for about half a year now and everything is grown so tall that we can’t even push our AeroGarden to go higher. The basil specifically grows wonderfully with this. There’s 3 basil plants (in the back to the right) and those plants are just awesome. They just grow, grow, grow. I honestly don’t even feel like I can keep up with the amount of basil it grows so I find myself picking some to dry, then suddenly I look a few days later and it’s already grown to the top again. This fresh basil has been feeding us yummy pesto for so many dinners lately.
I know lots of people prefer using pine nuts in their pesto recipe but have you seen the price of pine nuts? Every time I see the price of a package in the store I nearly faint. I like using other types of nuts, especially almonds and pistachios – that’s how I came up with this Easy, Budget Friendly Basil Pesto Pasta recipe! I’m a almond and pistachio nut (hahaha, get it?) so I always have a bunch stocked up in my pantry. 
Enjoy this Easy, Budget Friendly Basil Pesto Pasta!
Ingredients
- 3 cups of fresh basil leaves
- 4 cloves garlic
- 3/4 Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup roasted almonds or pistachios
- pinch of salt
- pasta of your choice cooked
- red pepper flakes to garnish
Instructions
- Combine basil, garlic, Parmesan Cheese, olive oil, almonds and salt in a food processor. Blend to a smooth pesto.
- Pour on hot cooked pasta and stir so pesto is evenly combined.
- Garnish with red pepper flakes for a added kick.
Notes
If you want to make this dairy free, substitute the Parmesan cheese with 1/4 cup of Nutritional Yeast.
vicky and ruth / May I Have That Recipe? says
Pesto is one of my favorite ways to enjoy pasta. And you have to use all that wonderful basil!
Natalie Paramore says
Basil Pesto Pasta is one of my favorites! Your version looks so simple and delicious, definitely trying it soon!
Amy @ Elephant Eats says
Mmm, I love a good homemade pesto! I’m totally craving some now. Wow, I’m very jealous of your basil plants. How do you keep the kitties from eating them?