COOKING WITH KIDS: Homemade Pesto

Plant an herb garden and make pesto all summer long

May 9, 2024

Heidi Billotto,

It’s May. If you haven’t already planted some sort of herb garden, it’s time to get digging! You’ll love being able to send your kids to pick a pinch of this and a sprig of that to use in nearly every dish you make through the summer months. I suggest starting with mint, basil, and parsley. Then, depending on what you and your family like to eat, go for thyme, rosemary, and sage.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

You can always start from seed, but for quicker gratification, start with small plants you can find at local farmers markets, hardware stores, or garden supply stores.

Pro Tip: Don’t try to plant the “living herbs” you get in the grocery store. These plants are grown to use and then toss the roots. I can’t really tell you why, but it has been my experience that these herbs just don’t do well when you try to transplant them.

Once your herb garden gets growing, show your kids how to pinch back the leaves to make the plants even larger and fuller. To do this, pinch off the top of each stem just above the point where you have a leaf growing on either side. This cut will encourage each leaf to grow into its own branch and your plant will get fuller.

If your plant starts to flower, pinch off the bud before it has a chance to grow. While the flowers are pretty, the plant’s energy goes toward growing flowers and it will stop producing the leaves we want for cooking.

Let’s Get Cooking!

Five-year-old Annie Krenz, daughter of chef Matthew Krenz and his lovely wife Rachel, came with her folks to dinner last year and helped me pick basil for a pesto I was making. We had so much fun in my herb garden that I asked her if she’d like to cook with me for this series.

Her 2-year-old brother Leo joined us, and they loved the process—although Leo was much more interested in putting each ingredient into measuring cups and pouring it out. (It was all good, though. That’s how kids learn.)

As we “measured” each ingredient, we tasted each one, too. The kids didn’t love the Manchego cheese, but they loved the almonds I used in place of traditional pine nuts—and the noise they made in the food processor. I also brought along local sweet potatoes to peel, slice, toast, and top with pesto, but the kids loved the raw slices so much that we pivoted and snacked on them as we cooked.

Instead, we served the pesto on English muffin halves and topped each one with a slice of tomato and a slice of cheese and ran them under a broiler until the cheese melted.

This recipe, originally dubbed “Cheese Dreams” in my original Betty Crocker Kids Cookbook, is one of the first recipes I ever learned to cook, and Annie and Leo loved it, too.

As Leo had to excuse himself for a nap, Annie and I kept finding things to do with the pesto. We spread it across a sheet of refrigerated crescent roll dough (the kind without perforations). Then she rolled it up like a jelly roll.

I helped her cut the log of dough and pesto in half lengthwise to make two long halves, then showed her how to twist them, cut side up, to make what looked like a long faux braid. Next we rolled the braid up into a round. The result is the round loaf of pesto bread you can see in the photos below. Simply bake according to the directions on the package, cool, slice, and enjoy.

Important note: Annie suggested filling the dough with Nutella in place of the pesto next time. Chocolate always wins.

Annie and Leo’s Homemade Pesto

Here’s what I love about making pesto: its versatility. Thicker pestos work better as spreads or toppings and thinner pestos are best as sauces on pasta and risotto, or as a dressing for roasted potato salad or chicken salad. Thinner pestos simply require more oil.

Author’s note: Those of you who make pesto on a regular basis may notice that my recipe has no garlic. That’s because without the garlic, I’ve found you get the full flavor of the delicate herbs. But if you’d like to add garlic, a clove or two will do the trick!

INGREDIENTS:

1 packed cup fresh Italian basil (or a mix of basil and fresh mint)
½-¾ cup of pine nuts or pignolia (or use almonds instead)
1 cup fresh shredded Parmesan or Manchego cheese (or any other firm, dry aged cheese that you and your kids love)
½-¾ cup your favorite extra virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

Combine the basil and nuts in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and process until the basil and the nuts are both finely chopped.
Add the shredded cheese.
With the machine running, drizzle the olive oil through the feed tube until the pesto reaches your desired consistency.

A word about olive oil: For this recipe and any others in your home cooking repertoire, I suggest locally owned Olive Crate’s Kores Estate Ultra Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil, available on Saturdays in Building B at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market, or online at olivecrate.com.