When Carol Huettner wants to make a fresh batch of pesto, she can go to her back yard.

Huettner grows between 60 and 70 varieties of herbs, including sage, thyme, oregano, marjoram and rosemary.

And basil — lots of basil, a primary ingredient in making pesto sauce. She cultivates seven kinds of the herb, including Genovese, Profumatissima, cinnamon and lemon.

Huettner sells her herbs, along with fresh flowers and ornamental dried grains and grasses, Saturdays at the Lawrence Farmers Market in the 1000 block of Vermont Street.

With as much basil as she has readily available just outside her kitchen, Huettner often can be found pounding the ingredients for a basic pesto sauce with her marble mortar and pestle: fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, Parmesan cheese and chopped nuts.

Most pesto recipes call for toasted pine nuts. Huettner is allergic to them, so she uses pecans, hazelnuts or walnuts.

“I make pesto several times a week,” she says. “I like to use it as a sauce to have on hand with pasta dishes, to mix with olives or marinate cheese with, or do a marinade with meat or poultry. It’s very versatile.”

The sauce, which originated in Genoa, Italy, is often used to highlight crusty breads, pastas, grilled meats and poultry. But pasta is likely the favorite among these.

While a basic pesto uses fresh basil, pesto sauces also can be made with a range of herbs, anything from cilantro to mint. Some people enjoy an arugula pesto.

Pesto is traditionally prepared by using basil, although some cooks use cilantro, arugula or even mint. Other basic ingredients include olive oil, Parmesan cheese, garlic and nuts. These bowls of pesto were made using the basic ingredients and, from left, pecans, hazel nuts and walnuts.

Huettner, however, is sticking with basil from her garden. It’s a good way to make use of it, she said.

“It’s very basic, very easy. You just have to put the ingredients in a blender and chop it up.”

Highly versatile

Making pesto is a natural for Jill Elmers, who has a business called Moon on the Meadow. Elmers, who sells herbs, vegetables and flowers Saturdays at the farmers market, grows plenty of basil.

“What I like about basil, from a cooking standpoint, is you can put it in just about anything. It’s used in Thai, Mexican and Italian food — it can go almost anywhere,” she says.

She likes to make large amounts at once.

Carol Huettner, Lawrence, prepares a fresh pesto sauce by pounding basil leaves and garlic cloves along with extra-virgin olive oil and Parmesan cheese.

“I make it in large quantities, and then I freeze it in an ice-cube tray. It makes a nice little chunk of pesto to put in any kind of noodles or sauce. I’ll probably make 12 or 14 cups (at once),” Elmers says.

“What I like about it is that it’s a light, flavorful way to make a nice meal. It’s not too heavy, but it’s loaded with flavor. The pine nuts and the basil and the garlic — you can’t lose with that.”

Betsy Faubion and Cathy Hawes, owners of Doolittle Farms, are vendors at the farmers market, too. Basil is among the variety of medicinal and culinary herbs they grow at the 80-acre farm south of the Leavenworth city limits.

Their homemade pesto is a popular item at the farmers market. An 8-ounce carton of it sells for $5. It contains fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil, pine nuts and a little salt.

“We like to keep it simple. You can put cheese in it, but we don’t. Vegans appreciate not having the cheese in it, and we don’t think it adds more to the flavor. It’s already so rich with the pine nuts,” Faubion says.

Her and Hawes like to use their pesto to make bruschetta — crusty bread spread with the sauce, layered with tomatoes and mozzarella or Parmesan cheese and toasted in the oven.

Carol Huettner displays a book featuring antique drawings of herbs such as basil, a key ingredient of pesto sauce. She was pictured Friday at her home in North Lawrence. Huettner makes pesto using basil from her garden.

They also make pesto pizza, with a ready-made pizza shell, pesto, tomatoes, mushroom and cheese.

“Or we’ll take it and toss it up with fresh pasta, Parmesan cheese and a few tomatoes to garnish it,” Faubion says.

Good fresh or frozen

Debbie Taylor, of Rangeland Herbs, sells her basil for $2 per pint bag at the farmers market.

But the pesto maker in her family is son, Zeb, 15. With the help of a friend, he uses his mom’s fresh basil to make his own pesto sauce which he sells at the market for $4 per container.

“It sells out just about every week. He has a real good pesto; he puts a little bit of feta cheese in it. And he uses walnuts instead of pine nuts. They’re less expensive and easier to get your hands on,” Taylor says.

She’s a pesto fan, too.

“I made a batch this morning. I like mine real strong on the garlic, real garlicky. I used eight cloves,” Taylor says.

“I like to freeze it in small jelly jars, then you just pull it out and it’s ready to go. It’s great to take to potlucks at the office or wherever. And it freezes great. You can’t tell the difference between fresh and frozen.”