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Basil and Walnut Sauce served ready to eat.

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Basil and Walnut Sauce

Yield
8 servings

Fresh basil, toasted walnuts, Parmesan and a little garlic blend with olive oil into a bright, spoonable green sauce. Toasting the nuts first gives the sauce a deeper, rounder flavor.

Ingredients
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Ingredients

Servings
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Batches and reset

8 servings · US measures · 1 batch

Batching

Process one base batch at a time in the food processor. For a double amount, blend a second batch; processing time does not scale with quantity.

Original recipe: 8 servings.

Water used only to loosen the sauce and extra salt added to taste are excluded from nutrition. The packed basil is not counted, because no cited gram weight exists for a packed cup of basil, so nutrition is incomplete.

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Before you start

  • Read through the recipe before toasting the walnuts. Gather the skillet, food processor, spatula and measured ingredients.

Directions

Basil, walnuts, grated Parmesan and measured seasonings sit beside an empty food processor and dry skillet.
1

Read and gather

For the whole recipe

Read through the recipe, gather the equipment, and use the ingredient lines to measure and prepare everything. Pick the basil leaves off their stems and pat them dry. Everything is measured and within reach.

Toasted walnut pieces cool in a single layer on a white plate beside the empty skillet.
2

Toast the walnuts

For each processor batch

Toast the walnut pieces in the dry 10-inch skillet over medium-low heat, shaking the pan often, until they smell nutty and darken a shade. Move them onto the plate to cool.

Textured green basil sauce fills the food processor as a spatula scrapes its sides.
3

Put everything in the processor and blend

For each processor batch

Put the basil, cooled walnuts, Parmesan, garlic and 1/4 tsp salt in the food processor, then pour in the olive oil. Pulse until coarsely chopped, scrape down the bowl with the spatula, then process until the sauce is mostly smooth with a little texture left.

A spoon lifts loose green sauce above a bowl, showing fine nut and cheese flecks.
4

Taste and adjust

For each processor batch

Taste a little of the sauce. Aim for fresh basil, rich nuts and cheese, and a gentle garlic bite, salty enough to taste lively. If it tastes flat, pulse in salt to taste. For a looser sauce, pulse in water to taste, a tablespoon at a time, until the sauce tastes lively and spoons easily.

Plastic wrap touches the green sauce surface inside a storage container, with its lid beside it.
5

Use or store the sauce

For the whole recipe

Use the sauce right away as 8 servings, or spoon it into the clean container and press plastic wrap onto the surface so the basil stays green. Because it holds raw garlic in oil, refrigerate it within two hours with the surface covered, use it within 3 days, or freeze it for longer.

About this recipe

Research preview: these details come from our sourced research and haven't been reviewed by our chef yet.

Why it works

Toasted walnuts give the sauce body and a rounder, deeper flavor than raw nuts, and blending the basil with oil and cheese coats the leaves so they stay greener. A spoonful of water at a time sets the thickness without diluting the flavor.

Associated with

Italian (Ligurian) inspired

Pesto takes its name from the Genoese word for pounding. It descends from older pounded sauces, including a medieval Genoese sauce of garlic and walnuts, and basil pesto is recorded from the 1850s.

Taste

  • Sweet
  • Sour
  • Salty
  • Bitter
  • Savory
  • Heat

Fresh basil and raw garlic, rounded by Parmesan., Walnut skins add a faint, pleasant bitterness. · nearly smooth, spoonable herb paste · room

Skill level

Easy

No cooking beyond toasting the nuts; it is a few minutes in a food processor.

You'll practice: Toast nuts, Blend in a food processor, scraping the bowl, Thin a sauce a spoonful at a time, Cover the surface to keep it green

Allergens

Contains: milk, tree nuts (walnut).

Diets

Vegetarian: Depends on what you buy Vegan: Doesn't fit as written Pescatarian: Depends on what you buy Dairy: See the allergen lines Egg: See the allergen lines Gluten: See the allergen lines

Occasions

  • Summer basil season · Editorial fit

    Fresh basil is at its most plentiful in summer.

  • Lenten Fridays · Fits as written: no meat

    A meatless sauce for pasta or vegetables.

    Ash Wednesday (46 days before Western Easter), Good Friday and the other Fridays of Lent

Technique: blend, no-cook · Time: under-15-minutes, make-ahead

Serving and keeping

Best served: Fresh, as soon as it is blended Tossed with hot pasta, loosened with a little cooking water, or spooned over vegetables

Make ahead: Press plastic wrap onto the surface so the basil stays green.

Storage: Refrigerate in a covered container with the surface covered. Raw garlic in oil must stay cold; do not leave it out more than 2 hours.

Leftovers: Use within 3 days; the top darkens where air reaches it.

Food safety

  • Raw garlic held in oil must be refrigerated; keep the sauce cold and use it within 3 days.
  • Do not leave the sauce out for more than 2 hours, or 1 hour above 90 °F (32 °C).
  • Traditional Parmigiano Reggiano is made from raw (unpasteurized) milk. For young children, older adults, pregnant people and anyone with a weakened immune system, choose a Parmesan made with pasteurized milk.

We make no statement about cross-contact in your kitchen or in packaged ingredients. Walnuts and Parmesan are in the sauce itself.

Nutrition notes

Most of the fat comes from olive oil and walnuts, which supply mainly unsaturated fat.

Parmesan and the added salt carry the sodium; tasting before salting keeps it lower.

We don't show nutrition claims (like “good source of”) until our legal review is done.

Swap notes

  • Parmesan cheese · vegetarian

    Works with changes

    Use: A hard Italian-style cheese made with microbial rennet

    What changes: Similar flavor and texture.

    Not a swap: Parmigiano Reggiano, which must be made with calf rennet.

  • garlic

    Works with changes

    Use: Garlic-infused olive oil for part of the oil

    What changes: Keeps the garlic aroma without the garlic itself.

    Not a swap: Garlic powder, which is high-FODMAP too.

These notes don't change the amounts, allergens or nutrition shown for this recipe.

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Recipe url
https://isthebestrecipe.com/sauces/basil-and-walnut-sauce
Name
Basil and Walnut Sauce
Servings
8
Recipe yield
8 servings
Recipe ingredient
about 1/2 cup walnut pieces, about 1 cup fresh basil leaves packed, about 2 oz Parmesan cheese finely grated, 4 cloves garlic chopped, 1/4 tsp salt, about 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
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Basil and Walnut Sauce