Homemade Creamy Pesto Sauce
Homemade Creamy Pesto Sauce Recipe – This effortless homemade pesto sauce is rich, creamy, and packed with bright summer flavors. Make the creamiest, dreamiest basil pesto sauce in just 5 minutes with only a handful of simple and fresh ingredients!
Why We Love This Creamy Pesto Recipe
Bright and zesty pesto tastes just like summer. It is packed with garden-fresh basil, a hint of lemon, and lots of garlic. There is no real cooking necessary, so it’s perfect for preparing on a hot day when you don’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. You can even make a large batch to keep in the fridge and enjoy for several days.
While our family is a big fan of classic basil pesto, I wanted to create a richer sauce to really elevate all of that herb-y, garlic-y goodness. This Creamy Pesto Sauce recipe features the best, bold pesto flavors we love, plus a smooth, crave-able creaminess that will make any true pesto lover rejoice!
There is no better way to describe this pesto sauce than as purely decadent.
When we say “creamy” we mean that it is actually made with cool, delicious heavy cream. Combined with pine nuts, pecorino (or parmesan) cheese, and extra-virgin olive oil, you will love how wonderfully indulgent this sauce tastes – while also being tangy and light.
The creamiest, dreamiest pesto sauce is delicious to enjoy in any number of ways, like chilled as a zippy dip or tossed with pasta and served warm or cold for a satisfying dinner or side dish.
Try our recipe for Creamy Pesto Sauce and add some excitement to your favorite foods!
What Ingredients You Need
The best basil pestos are made with simple, fresh ingredients. This recipe is a great way to use up that abundance of basil you have grown this summer and includes many items you likely already have on hand. A handful of simple ingredients.
Here is everything needed to make our Creamy Basil Pesto Sauce:
- Fresh Basil leaves – the main ingredient for this sauce
- Pine nuts – creates a rich creamy texture in the recipe
- Pecorino cheese – or parmesan
- Garlic cloves – you can add as much or as little as you would like
- Lemon zest – It brings a freshness to the recipe
- Extra-virgin olive oil – oil complements the pine nuts creaminess
- Heavy cream – A great combining ingredient
- Salt and pepper – Season to taste
If you don’t enjoy or can’t find pine nuts, you can substitute walnuts, almonds, or pistachios in this pesto recipe for a similar mild flavor and great texture.
How To Make the Creamiest Homemade Basil Pesto
This easy pesto recipe takes only 5 minutes to make, with no cooking required!
Set out a food processor. Place the basil leaves, pine nuts, pecorino cheese, garlic clove, and lemon zest in the food processor. Cover and pulse until finely ground.
Then add in the olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper. Pulse again until a smooth, thick pesto sauce is formed.
Add 3/4 cup heavy cream. Pulse just a few times to incorporate the cream. Add an additional 1/4 cup of heavy cream if needed. However, if the sauce is too thick, you can thin it out with a little water.
Taste, then salt and pepper as needed. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Tips & Tricks
- Only use the lemon zest! Lots of pesto recipes call for using lemon juice as well, but adding lemon juice can cause the cream in this recipe to separate. The lemon zest will still add lots of lemon flavor without all the acid!
- Use high quality olive oil! For the best flavor, I recommend using a high quality olive oil. This can really impact how this pesto tastes!
- If you or someone who is going to eat this pesto is allergic to nuts, you can add sunflower seeds instead! Or, simply skip the nuts entirely.
Get the Complete (Printable) Homemade Creamy Pesto Sauce Recipe Below. Enjoy!
How To Enjoy This Creamy Pesto
You want to be sure that you don’t cook the pesto sauce directly, as this would greatly change the lovely, fresh flavor. Instead, you either want to incorporate the raw pesto into cooked (and at least slightly cooled) dishes, serve chilled, or enjoy at room temperature.
This vibrant pesto sauce is perfect for serving as a cold dip with seasonal veggies, crackers, pita and/or baguette slices.
It is fantastic as a unique sandwich spread, on both cold cut sandwiches and hot paninis.
We love topping homemade pizzas with creamy pesto for a fun, fancy pizza party night.
And, of course, this creamy basil pesto sauce is excellent with many different types of pasta. Combine with a hearty pasta like fusilli or tortellini, serve warm, or chill and enjoy a refreshing pasta salad.
We recommend you make our fabulous Basil Pesto Chicken Pasta with creamy pesto as an easy weeknight meal this summer! Very tasty creamy pesto pasta recipe.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! You can add a bit of water to the food processor as you are making this pesto. If you are making pasta, you can also add extra water to thin out the sauce. Cook your noodles to al dente and reserve a little bit of the pasta water. Then, in a skillet, add a few spoonfuls of pesto cream sauce to the pan. Heat it up on medium heat and add the cooked pasta to the skillet. Stir and see if you need any pasta water to thin out the sauce a little bit! Add more sauce as needed, too.
I like to use short noodles with lots of curves so that they soak up the creamy pesto! Try using cavatappi, fusilli, rotini, or mafalda pasta!
Yes, this homemade pesto sauce recipe is completely gluten-free! While it is fairly high in fat, it is low carb and can be enjoyed on a keto diet. Try pairing it with your favorite gluten-free pasta or tossed with zoodles!
Store your homemade pesto sauce in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5-7 days!
This recipe does not do well frozen due to the cream in the sauce. Thawing will change the texture of the sauce!
You can store this sauce in a jar in the fridge for up to a week and use it as an ingredient in many different recipes! Besides making pasta, you can use it as a spread on a sandwich, mix it into a salad dressing, use it as pizza sauce, toss with vegetables, or mix it into sour-cream based dips!
Looking for More Easy and Fresh Summer Recipes?
- Chicken Pesto Pasta Recipe
- Panini Sandwich with Creamy Pesto Sauce Recipe
- Creamy Chimichurri Sauce Recipe
- Avocado Stuffed Shells Recipe
- Italian Summer Pasta with Orange and Basil Recipe
- Wild Rice Salad with Blueberries and Herbs Recipe
- Stuffed Zucchini Boats with Quinoa and Pine Nuts Recipe
- Chicken Quinoa Bowls with Romesco Sauce Recipe
- Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto & Fontina Fondue Recipe
Check the printable recipe card below for the nutrition information including calories, protein, sodium, and fiber percentages.
Homemade Creamy Pesto Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh basil leaves packed
- ½ cup pine nuts
- ½ cup grated pecorino cheese or parmesan
- 1 clove garlic peeled
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 3/4 – 1 cup heavy cream
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Set out a food processor. Place the basil leaves, pine nuts, pecorino cheese, garlic clove, and lemon zest in the food processor. Cover and pulse until finely ground.
- Then add in the olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon ground pepper. Pulse again until a smooth, thick pesto sauce is formed.
- Add 3/4 cup heavy cream. Pulse just a few times to incorporate the cream. Add an additional 1/4 cup of heavy cream if needed. However, if the sauce is too thick, you can thin it out with a little water.
- Taste, then salt and pepper as needed. Refrigerate until ready to use.
I really enjoyed this pesto recipe! Exactly what I was looking for, a creamy, dynamic pesto. Only thing for me personally, is next time I think I would ditch the olive oil entirely. I only added 1/2 of 1/2 cup, but I think the heavy cooking cream more than does enough to carry this sauce without the need for oil.
So good! I doubled the garlic but otherwise made no changes – found myself wanting to just eat it by itself with a spoon, no pasta needed!
I made this and it is super good. Just like I had in the restaurant! I used extra garlic as
you suggested . Awesome!
Delicious pasta sauce. I added about half the amount of olive oil the recipe called for, but used half olive half truffle infused olive oil. Added the sauce to penne with mushroom and bacon.
Great recipe, thank you!
Have made this a few times, it is a super legit recipe. Very tasty, doesn’t take that long. I add chicken breast seasoned w salt pepper garlic and onion powder with linguine and it is bomb AF
Everyone enjoyed this. The only addition I made was a tablespoon of sugar because I felt it needed a bit of a sweet quick. I used this as a sauce for Arancini (Sicilian rice balls) and I used the remaining sauce for a roasted pork tenderloin the next day. Very good – thank you!
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I love pesto and have been making it for quite some time. I had the creamy version in Italy and wanted to try at home. Your recipe tasted very good but a tad bit too creamy for me. I would use less cream and more garlic. I used 2 cloves. Otherwise I found it to be very good! I also enjoyed the addition of the lemon zest.
Thanks very much
Agree–adding more garlic improves the flavor. Only 1/2 cup cream was plenty for me. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Love this creamy pesto recipe! So easy to make and so delicious!
Can you freeze this recipe? Not sure how the cheese would thaw.
Hi Beth,
Honestly, it’s better if you don’t. It definitely changes the texture a bit. ;)
a nice change from my own pesto recipe, a garden variety one, so thank you!
We love making pesto but this creamy version takes it to a whole new delicious level! Perfect!
This is really amazing!! Such a new staple at my house!
The perfect pesto sauce