Aficionados of pasta and fresh vegetables appreciate the fresh and aromatic flavour of pesto. If you have fresh herbs at hand you can make some delicious herb pesto with simple means and relatively few ingredients. The big advantage compared to the store-bought version is that you can decide what herbs to put in and adjust the flavour to your liking. Below I’ll show you three great recipes for different herbal pesto that you can make in almost no time.
Tips for making pesto
Making herbal pesto is a fast and easy way to process fresh herbs.
Necessary devices
Pesto recipes always recommend using pestle and mortar. The reason behind this is not to make your arms go lame during the process of shredding and mixing the ingredients but to keep the herbs’ essential oils from evaporating. Electric devices like kitchen blenders or mixers can destroy valuable aroma substances of the herbs. Some essential oils evaporate at 40 °C already and the mentioned devices can reach those temperatures in a relatively short time. Thus, using a pestle and mortar is the first choice for making pesto.
However! If you chop the ingredients into very small pieces, use the pulsing function of your hand blender and pause the device whenever it gets warm, you’ll also get a formidable pesto. The choice of device is up to you.
What you should do in any case is wash the herbs and dry them thoroughly, then chop them finely with a knife before putting them either into the mortar or bowl for further processing.
Basic pesto ingredients
For an aromatic pesto, you always need two main ingredients: oil- or fat-containing nuts or seeds and an appropriate plant oil. One of the most famous recipes for a classic pesto, the Pesto alla Genovese, uses pine nuts and high-quality cold-pressed olive oil.
You can experiment like a crazy scientist with the nuts and seeds. Try out walnuts, for instance, or pistachios, hazelnuts, almonds, sunflower or pumpkin seeds, cashew nuts or – as in the original – pine nuts. Apart from olive oil, you can use sunflower oil, pumpkin seed oil or walnut oil. There is (almost) no limit to the imagination!
A further important ingredient is well-matured aromatic hard cheese – at least for all non-vegans. You can either use pecorino cheese which is mostly made of sheep milk or a good parmesan. Or both.
The last basic ingredient for our herb pesto is – tadaa! – herbs. You can use almost all herbs. If you use a mix of herbs, make sure that they harmonize well. When in doubt, stick to the classic Mediterraneans like rosemary, sage, thyme, savoury, basil and oregano. Either use the single herbs or a combination.
Further possibilities are kitchen herbs like lovage, bear’s garlic, parsley and tarragon or wild herbs like dandelion, sorrel or goutweed.
Recipes for homemade herb pesto
It’s quite easy to make herb pesto by yourself. In a few easy steps, you can make some tasty variations that are great in Italian dishes, on fresh bread or as salad dressing. I show you some simple recipes that you can adapt to your liking.
Bear’s garlic pesto
Bear’s garlic or wild garlic is a very popular spring herb. You may have tried already these recipes for bear’s garlic bread and bear’s garlic brioche braids. Wild garlic pesto is another great recipe for this flavoury herb. Its delicious taste is wonderful with pasta and fried potatoes. You can use it in a risotto or spread it on freshly baked rustic bread.
Ingredients for 250 ml pesto
50 g bear’s garlic 125 ml olive oil 5 walnuts 50 g pecorino ½ tsp salt
Instructions
Wash the wild garlic leaves and chop them finely. Grind the walnuts with a pestle in the mortar until they’re creamy, then add the chopped wild garlic. Add the pecorino. Alternatively, put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix them with a blender. Remember to only pulse the blender. Add the oil and salt to your taste.
Mediterranean herb pesto (vegan)
Combine Mediterranean herbs like thyme, lavender, basil, oregano, savory, rosemary and sage and use it for an extraordinary vegan herb pesto. A bit of garlic enhances the flavour of the herb mix.
Ingredients for 250 g pesto
10 g thyme 10 g lavender 15 g basil 15 g oregano 1 – 2 garlic cloves 20 g pine nuts 125 ml olive oil 1 tsp of salt and pepper each
Instructions
Chop the herbs and the garlic. Roast the pine nuts without oil in a pan until they turn light brown. Put the nuts and the chopped herbs in a mortar and mash them together with a pestle. Add the oil and salt and mix all thoroughly. If you want – and don’t insist on this pesto variant being vegan – you can also add hard cheese, for example, parmesan.
Wild herb pesto with dandelion, sorrel and goutweed
Wild herb lovers will adore this pesto that’s perfect for noodles, gnocchi or wild herb salads.
Ingredients for 250 ml wild herb pesto
50 g wild herbs (dandelion, sorrel and goutweed) 25 g sunflower seeds 10 g walnuts 125 ml olive oil (alternative: grape seed oil) 2 tsp lime juice (alternative: lemon juice) 2 tbsp parmesan 1/2 – 1 tsp salt 1/2 – 1 tsp pepper
Instructions
Wash the fresh herbs thoroughly, then dry and chop them. Put the sunflower seeds, walnuts and chopped herbs into a mortar and mash all together with a pestle. After that, add the oil, lime juice and cheese and mix it all thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to your taste.
Storage time of homemade pesto
Making herb pesto is a fast process and you may be tempted to make a lot of it when your herb harvest is abundant. However, pesto can’t be stored for a long time. The oil and salt in pesto are usually preserving foods that help to prolong the storage time of the pesto. The nuts, however, become rancid after some time and thus make the pesto inedible. The same goes for the hard cheese.
Therefore, homemade pesto can be stored unopened for three to four weeks in the fridge, depending on the quality and amount of oil and cheese in it. Storage time can be enhanced when you fill up the jar with oil so that the pesto has no contact with the air. Another possibility to prolong storage time is to add the hard cheese not until you eat the pesto.
So, making pesto is a great idea but making large amounts of it may not be the best way to preserve your abundant herb harvest. If you need other ideas to have herbs all year round, take a look at this post.
Strawberries! Every year we can’t wait for the first ripe strawberry and the knowledge that their harvesting time is limited to only a few weeks, makes them all the more precious. I think this relatively short availability and the fact that they don’t freeze well make them so popular. However, you can’t keep them for long in the fridge either and thus have to process them quickly. There are many fast and easy strawberry recipes like this strawberry pavlova or the strawberry tiramisu. But sometimes, we want to do something more impressive. That’s what this recipe is for. This strawberry dome cake will be a showstopper on every coffee table and it’s said to have even left some mother-in-laws speechless 😉 Admittedly, it takes more time to prepare this wonderful cake but it’s worth every minute of your effort!
Strawberry Dome Cake
10 – 12 servings
Ingredients:
3 eggs (size M) 1 pinch of salt 220 g sugar 100 g flour 1 tsp baking powder approx. 1 tsp butter 12 gelatin leaves (red or white) 1 kg strawberries 300 g curd cheese 200 g cream 1 package of red cake glaze
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F). Separate the eggs and beat the egg whites and salt until stiff. Gradually add sugar and beat again until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the egg yolks. Mix the flour and baking powder and sieve it onto the stiff egg whites. Carefully fold in the flour mixture.
Line a baking tray with baking paper and put the dough on it. Smooth it out until it’s even and bake it in the oven for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, put a dishcloth on a flat surface and sprinkle it with sugar. When the cake is ready, remove it from the oven and immediately put it on the cloth, facing downwards. Remove the baking paper and let it cool down.
Take a half-round bowl and line it with cling film. Soak the gelatin leaves according to the packet instructions. Wash the strawberries and remove the green leaves. Cut about 300 g of the strawberries into slices and layer the bowl with them.
Mash the remaining strawberries together with 100 g of sugar. Stir the puree into the curd cheese. Remove the gelatine from the water and squeeze it. Afterwards, dissolve it in a small pot on medium heat and stir in 2 tbsp of the curd. Then stir this mixture into the remaining curd and let it cool down. In the meantime, whip the cream until it’s stiff and fold it into the curd mixture.
Cut the sponge cake into three layers for your half-round bowl. This can best be done with glasses or bowls of different sizes. The first layer should be the smallest, followed by a larger one. The last layer should be large enough to cover the bowl opening.
Carefully fill some of the cream into the bowl and put the smallest cake layer onto it. Alternately layer the mousse and the sponge, ending with the largest cake layer. Put it in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
Put a cake plate onto the bowl and turn it over so the cake sits on the plate. Remove the bowl and cling film. Prepare the cake glaze according to the package instructions and pour it over the cake. Let it cool for at least another 30 minutes.
The classic tiramisu consists of ladyfingers, coffee, mascarpone and cocoa. But did you know that you can also make strawberry tiramisu? It’s lighter than the original and thus the perfect dessert for summer! Whenever I make it, I have to quickly secure a portion for me before the boys gobble it up in no time! I can’t blame them. And when you taste it you’ll certainly agree: One bite of this delicious dessert and you’ll become addicted, as well.
The good thing is that it’s swift to make. But look for yourselves:
Strawberry Tiramisu
For 4 people (or 2 greedy boys)
Ingredients:
15 – 20 ladyfingers 300 g strawberries 300 g curd cheese 150 g cream 3 tsp sugar 1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions:
Wash the strawberries, remove the green leaves and cut them into slices. Put them into a bowl and mix them with 1 tsp of sugar and the lemon juice. Let the strawberries marinate for about 20 – 30 minutes, until a juice forms.
Whip the cream until it’s stiff. Mix the curd with 2 tsp of sugar and gently fold in the cream.
Put the ladyfingers side by side into a tray. Drizzle some of the strawberry juice over them so that they soak it up. Evenly spread the cream-curd mix onto the ladyfingers and put strawberry slices on top. Repeat these steps until all ingredients are used up. The last layer should be strawberries. Serve well chilled.
If you have never come across a pavlova, you missed something! It’s basically a baiser base with cream and fruit. That may sound a little dull but don’t underestimate this yummy combination: the sweet, crisp base, the rich, fluffy cream and the fresh fruit will catapult your palate onto cloud nine! With this beginner-friendly recipe, I’ll show you how to make a wonderfully tasty strawberry pavlova.
Strawberry Pavlova
For 5 people
Ingredients:
For the Baiser base
270 g icing sugar 15 g cornstarch 4 egg whites (150 g) 1/2 tsp baking powder a pinch of salt 1/2 tbsp white vinegar
For the topping
250 g cream 250 g strawberries 1 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar almond flakes or chopped pistachios (optional)
Instructions:
Mix the icing sugar and cornstarch and sieve twice. Stir the egg whites, the baking powder and the salt in a metal bowl and set it in a hot water bath. Mix the icing sugar-cornstarch mixture in portions and warm up the whole batter until it is hand-warm. Transfer it into a second bowl and stir it until it’s very stiff. Add the white vinegar and mix it in.
Preheat the oven to 150 °C (300 °F). Fill the baiser into a piping bag with a large-holed nozzle. Alternatively, fill it into a common freezer bag and cut off a corner. Put baking paper onto the tray. Now, pipe three even circles onto the baking tray and bake them in the oven for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 100 °C (210 °F) and let the baiser dry for approximately 2 hours. Let it cool.
Roast the almonds in a pan without fat until they are light brown. Put them on a plate and let them cool down. In the meantime, wash the strawberries, remove the leaves and cut them into slices. Whip the cream until it’s stiff. Layer the baiser bases with cream and strawberries (and almonds if you use them). The last layer is strawberries. Alternatively, you can use only one cake base and top it with cream and strawberries. Serve immediately, otherwise the baiser will soak through and become soft.
Everybody knows lemon curd but did you know you can make curd from vegetables also? I tried out carrot curd which, in combination with cream cheese, is the topping for these moist carrot muffins. We have carrots in abundance all year round, either fresh from the garden or sand storage, so I can make this treat whenever I like. And with this easy recipe, you can, too!
Carrots and hazelnuts complement each other wonderfully and the fresh and slightly salty taste of the cream cheese is a marvellous addition to the sweet and earthy carrot curd.
Carrot muffins with cream cheese – carrot curd topping
Yield: 14 muffins
Ingredients
For the carrot curd:
125 ml carrot juice, freshly juiced
150 g sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
45 g butter in cubes
2 egg yolks
1 whole egg
¼ tsp cinnamon
For the carrot muffins:
180 g grated carrots (you can take the leftovers from the juice-maker and grate some fresh carrots additionally if it’s not enough)
4 eggs
130 g brown sugar
60 g flour
200 g ground hazelnuts
1 tbsp baking powder
For the Topping:
150 g carrot curd
150 g cream cheese
Instructions
Carrot curd
1. Mix the carrot juice, sugar and cornstarch in a bowl. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat while constantly stirring until it thickens.
2. Take the pot off the heat and stir in the butter until it has melted. Afterwards, add the egg yolks and the whole egg.
3. Put the pot back on the heat and stir for 5 – 6 minutes until the mixture has thickened considerably and falls heavily from the spoon. Put it aside, cover it with cling film so that it won’t form a skin and let it cool down.
Carrot muffins
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F)
2. Separate the eggs. Whisk the egg whites with half the amount of sugar until it’s solid.
3. Beat and froth the egg yolks with the remaining sugar.
4. Sieve the flour and baking powder and mix both with the ground hazelnuts.
5. Mix the flour and nuts, as well as the grated carrots under the egg yolk mass. Carefully fold in the whipped egg whites.
6. Fill the mixture into a muffin form and let the muffins bake for about 25 minutes. Insert a chopstick into a muffin to see if it’s done. When you pull the stick out there should be no dough sticking to it.
7. Take the muffins out of the oven, remove them from the muffin form and let them cool down.
Assembly
1. Mix the cream cheese with the carrot curd until homogenously combined.
2. Either spread or pipe the topping onto the muffins.
One of the first plants that we can harvest every spring is bear’s garlic (or wild garlic). It grows naturally in forest glades but you can also cultivate it in a shady corner of your garden. I’ve tried it last year but my garden lies in full sun so I think that was the reason it didn’t sprout. Bear’s garlic tastes similar to garlic but lighter and not so extreme. The same goes for your breath afterwards: you’ll smell of garlic but not as strongly as if you had eaten real garlic. Nevertheless, I know a spot in the forests where bear’s garlic grows abundantly and I harvested some of that. Some of it I used to make a wonderful bear’s garlic brioche braid, a savoury bread that’s a wonderful base for a hearty snack.
If you want to harvest bear’s garlic from the forests, too, make absolutely sure that you have the right plant. Bear’s garlic can be confused with lily of the valley which is toxic!
I often have baked bear’s garlic into bread like this bear’s garlic knot to add some savoury flavour to the dough. For this recipe, I have used an enriched dough, which is a yeast dough with additional fat in the form of milk, butter and eggs. Usually, enriched yeast dough is used for sweet bakes like brioches or this braided yeast bun. In this recipe, I’ve used it for a savoury light bread that marvellously captures the essence of spring.
Bear’s Garlic Brioche Braid
Ingredients:
Makes three brioche braids
700 g flour (I prefer spelt but you can use wheat)
1 tsp salt
30 g yeast or 7 g dried yeast
1 tsp sugar
300 ml milk
50 g butter
2 eggs
one handful of bear’s garlic (about 70 – 100 g)
1 red onion
50 g walnuts
olive oil
Salt, pepper
egg yolk
course sea salt
Instructions:
If you use fresh yeast, dissolve it in a bite of lukewarm milk, add some sugar and stir until becomes a uniform mass. Let it rest for 20 minutes until the liquid has visibly risen.
2. Wash the bear’s garlic, dry it, and chop it roughly. Peel the onion and cut it into fine rings. Chop the walnuts. Heat up the olive oil in a pan and add the bear’s garlic, onions and walnuts. Stew it lightly, season it with salt and pepper and let it cool down.
3. For the yeast dough, put the flour and salt into a bowl. If you use dried yeast, add it, too. Add the eggs, butter and milk (and yeast milk in case of fresh yeast) and knead these ingredients into a smooth dough. Put the dough into a bowl and let it rest for about one hour (it should double its volume).
4. Thoroughly knead the dough on a floured surface and divide it into three portions. Divide each portion again into three parts and roll each part to a string. Plait a braid from three strings so that you get three brioche braids.
5. Cover a tray with baking parchment, put the braids onto the tray and let them rest and rise for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200 °C (°F). Scramble the egg yolk and brush the brioche braids with it. Sprinkle some sea salt on top of the braids and let them bake in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes.
As I said before, this bear’s garlic brioche braid is a wonderful spring bread, but you can make the same recipe with different herbs later in summer. Use chive, for example, parsley and chervil or try stinging nettle and rocket for a twist. Be creative and have fun trying out different herbs.
