Pat baby spinach completely dry with paper towels before blending to prevent excess moisture from diluting your pesto and making it watery instead of luxuriously thick.

Lightly toast walnut pieces in a dry pan for 2-3 minutes before adding to the pesto to unlock their deeper, richer flavor and enhance the overall complexity of your sauce.

Use short pulse bursts on your food processor rather than continuous blending to achieve a textured, chunky consistency with visible ingredient pieces—the hallmark of premium pesto.

Fold in grated Parmesan by hand after processing other ingredients to prevent it from becoming gummy and to maintain its granular texture throughout the sauce.

Remove lemon zest with a microplane before cutting the lemon for juice to capture the most aromatic oils, then add zest at the very end to preserve its bright, fresh character.