Last updated February 20th, 2025
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This creamy basil pesto recipe is made without pine nuts for an easy, budget-friendly alternative that doesn’t sacrifice any flavor!
There’s nothing better than biting into creamy, super fresh pesto slathered on a sandwich or a slice of fluffy Italian bread. Something about it just tastes like summer, which is a feeling we can all appreciate, even in the dead of winter. The only downside is that eating too much pesto is an expensive habit, whether you’re buying jars of it at the grocery store or making it yourself – until now! Say hello to an easy homemade basil pesto without nuts, perfect for indulging in creamy goodness on a budget.
What This Recipe Entails
Using a couple fresh ingredients, a food processor or blender, and about 10 minutes, you can make an easy basil pesto without nuts.
- Prep time: 10 minutes
- Time until it’s all gone: Too soon.
This recipe uses breadcrumbs in place of pine nuts for a nut free pesto. The flavor of this pesto comes from fresh basil, high quality extra virgin olive oil, minced garlic, and parmesan.
No Nut Pesto Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make creamy pesto without pine nuts:
- Fresh basil – Basil can be an expensive ingredient which is why we love growing our own basil at home! Basil is easy to take care of and can be used in so many different recipes.
- Plain breadcrumbs – Breadcrumbs mimic the texture of pine nuts but add a unique flavor to pesto, while being a more easily accessible ingredient. They’re much cheaper than pine nuts, and you can even make them yourself.
- Extra virgin olive oil – Olive oil comes in so many different flavors and qualities. Find one you like and use that. If you’re looking for a suggestion we use California Olive Ranch olive oils and really like them.
- Grated parmesan cheese – Shred your own from a blog for an extra creamy texture!
- Minced garlic – You can never have enough garlic flavor! Use freshly minced if you want a bolder garlicky taste.
While the ingredients for making your own nut free basil pesto are fairly straightforward, we can’t stress enough that the quality of your ingredients matters! The most basic recipes can benefit from fresh, high-quality ingredients the most because you taste every single ingredient. For this recipe, we recommend using only the freshest basil and springing for a higher end olive oil. You’ll taste the difference!
How To Make Pesto Without Pine Nuts
Our homemade basil pesto recipe is very straightforward and easy to make – all you need is a food processor or blender and about 10 minutes.
- Add basil leaves, breadcrumbs, olive oil, grated parmesan, minced garlic, salt, and about 2 tablespoons of the ice water to the food processor.
- Cover and pulse a few times to break up the basil, then add a little more of the ice water and process on low speed for a few seconds.
- Scrape the sides of the food processor, then add a little more ice water and process on medium speed for just a few more seconds. Continue this process of scraping, adding ice water a little at a time, and processing on medium speed until the pesto is smooth and creamy and you’ve used all the water.
- Enjoy immediately or store in a jar in the refrigerator or freezer.
Slowly adding ice cold water to the pesto as it processes will help preserve the bright green color of the basil. (We learned this trick from MasterClass after watching a course taught by renowned Italian chef Massimo Bottura). While not totally necessary, we think the bright color makes this homemade pesto look super appetizing!
Adding the water a little at a time will help you keep an eye on the texture of your pesto, so you can easily add more or less water depending on how creamy you want it to be. Just be sure not to over-process your pesto – as soon as it’s the texture you like, stop the food processor! This will ensure you don’t pulverize the basil too much, which can affect the flavor.
Storing Homemade Pesto
In case you don’t eat all this delicious pesto right away, we recommend storing it in a glass jar with a screw-on lid. You’ll want to fill the jar almost to the top, so there isn’t much air inside which can oxidize the basil and make it turn brown.
Store pesto in the fridge for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. To defrost frozen pesto, simply put it in the fridge about 24 hours before you want to use it.
Serving Suggestions
Basil pesto is delicious as a spread or dip for fresh bread, crackers, crostini, and veggies! We also love incorporating pesto into charcuterie boards with fresh tomato and mozzarella. You can even use pesto as a sauce for pasta or pizza, a spread on sandwiches, and so much more.
Unless you just want to gobble all this pesto up as a snack, here are a few recipes you can make with it:
Try our recipe for creamy nut-free basil pesto below and don’t forget to rate, comment, and share! We hope you love this recipe as much as we do.
FAQs
The short answer: replace them with breadcrumbs. The long answer: fresh, high quality ingredients, a powerful food processor (or blender), and less than 10 minutes of your time.
Yes, especially if you make pesto without pine nuts!
Pine nuts can be quite expensive, which is why our nut free pesto recipe is perfect for enjoying pesto on a budget! You can easily make it yourself for cheaper than most store-bought pesto.
Jarred pesto can range anywhere from $5 to $15, depending on the quality and size of the jar. To make our nut-free basil pesto recipe, you’ll use about $3 worth of fresh basil, $2 worth of extra virgin olive oil, and less than a dollar’s worth of breadcrumbs, grated parmesan, and minced garlic (each). And you likely already have salt and cold water at home, so they’re basically free.
Plus, one batch of our recipe makes almost 2 cups of pesto – way more than what you can buy in a standard jar! So for about $6 worth of ingredients, you can easily make your own creamy nut-free pesto at home.
Absolutely. Freshly made basil pesto tastes so much lighter, healthier, and more flavorful than store-bought jarred pesto. Since basil oxidizes (turns brown) quickly, jarred pesto typically has a lot of olive oil to keep the basil green. This makes it taste heavier, more greasy, and not quite as fresh.
Love this recipe? You may enjoy these recipes, too:
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Pesto Without Nuts
Ingredients
- 2.4 ounces fresh basil leaves about 1 cup tightly packed
- ½ cup plain breadcrumbs
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup ice water
Instructions
- Add basil leaves, breadcrumbs, olive oil, grated parmesan, minced garlic, salt, and about 2 tablespoons of the ice water to the food processor. Cover and pulse a few times to break up the basil, then add about 2 tablespoons more of the ice water and process on low speed for a few seconds.
- Scrape the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula, then add a little more ice water and process on medium speed for just a few more seconds. Continue this process of scraping, adding ice water a little at a time and processing on medium speed until the pesto is smooth and creamy.
- Enjoy immediately with fresh bread or crackers, use as a sauce or spread on pasta and sandwiches, or transfer to a glass jar for storing in the fridge or freezer.
Notes
Nutrition
If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this post, please refer to our Nutrition Disclaimer here.
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