How To Freeze Pesto

Like many sauces, pesto can be frozen with minimal loss of quality. This ensures you have little nuggets of pesto on hand whenever you need to spruce up your dinner.

Freezing pesto is perfectly safe

Pesto is perfectly safe to freeze as long as it hasn't been frozen before, and it offers a great way to ensure that you don't waste any leftovers. Some Italians feel strongly that the extreme cold kills many of the sauce's delicate properties, but we've never noticed a substantial difference between the taste of fresh pesto and pesto that has been frozen.

An ice cube tray is the perfect container to freeze pesto in

Our favourite way to freeze pesto is to invest in a dedicated plastic ice cube tray and use it exclusively for storing little pesto cubes. It means you'll have a ready supply of flavourful nuggets whenever you want to jazz up your supper with an extra pop of flavour.

An alternative way to freeze pesto

If you have too much pesto to fit in an ice cube container, layer the sauce flat on greaseproof paper, wait for it to freeze solid, and then break it into smaller pieces before transferring it to a zip-lock freezer bag. Providing your freezer is set to the recommended temperature of -18°C, your frozen pesto will be perfectly safe for up to 6 months.

How to defrost pesto

To defrost pesto, either leave it in the fridge overnight, run it under cold water, or put it in your microwave on its "defrost" setting for a few minutes.