Pesto Butter - all the flavours of basil pesto in a super easy compound butter. Perfect for anything from your next salmon fillet to a loaf of basil pesto garlic bread.
Today's recipe is for one of those super easy, but total flavour-explosion-type recipes that can turn a dish into an absolute winner with just one simple touch. My basil pesto butter will help you transform an oven-baked salmon fillet, bowl of mashed potatoes, or your next loaf of garlic bread. I even buttered some still-hot toasted sourdough with it - it's that good!
With tastes similar to basil pesto, but in the form of a compound butter, this pesto butter takes hardly any time to put together and tastes divine! I love flavoured butters, they are such a simple way to add that special something to a dish, plus they make the ultimate no-cook sauce. And this food blogger loves a no-cook sauce!
Table of Contents
Ingredients you will need for this recipe
- unsalted butter
- fresh basil
- parmesan cheese
- pine nuts
- garlic
- fine salt
*Please see the recipe card below for exact quantities and detailed instructions
How to make pesto butter
- First, I peel and halve a clove of garlic, then remove the core in the centre of the clove (more about this further down in the post).
- Place the basil, parmesan, pine nuts and garlic clove into a food processor.
- Process until finely chopped.
- Place softened butter in a bowl.
- Then add chopped basil mixture to butter and mix well to combine, and adding salt to taste.
- Shape butter mixture into a log then wrap in baking paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Coring garlic - what is it and should I do it
- Each individual clove of garlic has a small core, sometimes called a "germ" in their centre. It can vary from white to green in colour, depending on the age of the garlic clove.
- Coring your clove of garlic means slicing the garlic clove down the centre and remove this core using a small sharp knife or your fingernail. It should come out quite easily.
- To core or not to core - it depends on how you are using the garlic in your recipe. If you are using the garlic in a raw dish (like this pesto butter, or in aioli maybe) or cooking it only lightly (say a pasta dish or a stir-fry) then I remove it. The core is much stronger in flavour than the rest of the clove - to me it tastes like raw onion rather than garlic - but if you are making a dish that will be cooked a lot longer then leaving the core in is fine as the garlic will mellow during the longer cooking process.
My top tips for making this recipe
- I stumbled onto a great hack when I made this recipe and it's one I'm definitely going to use going forward! Previously I would mix the butter and chopped basil mixture together with a fork, but it hit me - what about a potato masher? - genius! Worked a treat!
- This recipe makes about 10 slices of basil pesto butter, with approximately a tablespoon in each slice.
- I go with unsalted butter for this and other recipes like it. That way you can control the amount of salt in the finished compound butter.
Other recipes that you may enjoy
Cafe de Paris Butter - the ultimate flavoured butter for your steak. A truly awesome no-cook sauce!
Double Mustard Garlic Sauce - another super simple and fast no-cook butter sauce with mustard, garlic and chives. Just melt, mix and serve!
Pesto Butter
Ingredients
- 200 g unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves firmly packed
- 20 g fresh parmesan grated
- 1 tablespoon pine nuts
- 1 garlic clove
- fine salt to taste
Instructions
- Peel and halve a clove of garlic (1), then remove the core in the centre of the clove and discard (more about this in the post above).
- Place the fresh basil leaves (1 cup), grated parmesan (20 g), pine nuts (1 tbsp) and garlic clove (1) into a food processor and process until finely chopped.
- Place softened butter (200 g) in a bowl. Then add chopped basil mixture to butter and mix well to combine, then add salt to taste.
- Shape butter mixture into a log then wrap in baking paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Notes
- I stumbled onto a great hack when I made this recipe and it's one I'm definitely going to use going forward! Previously I would mix the butter and chopped basil mixture together with a fork, but it hit me - what about a potato masher? - genius! Worked a treat!
- This recipe makes about 10 slices of basil pesto butter, with approximately a tablespoon in each slice.
- I go with unsalted butter for this and other recipes like it. That way you can control the amount of salt in the finished compound butter.
Making me drool...can it be frozen? And for how long?
Yes Mary, it can be frozen.
Recipe calls for 1 clove of garlic, yet the photos show several cloves standing by. Do you mean one bulb of garlic containy many individual cloves?
Hi Cynthia! You only need one individual clove of garlic for this recipe.