Pesto Sauce: Recipes At Home, What To Eat With

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Cooking pesto sauce: a selection of flavorful recipes

Pesto sauce made with spicy herbs, nuts and olive oil is a hallmark of Italian cuisine. It is served with pasta, pizza and meat dishes, and is also included in marinades and salad dressings.

Main products

Basil is used in the classic recipe. It has a spicy aroma and a bittersweet taste.

Basil not only gives the sauce a bright aroma and taste, but also has a positive effect on well-being, as it increases immunity and removes toxins from the body

An indispensable participant is olive oil. It must be of the first cold pressing, as evidenced by the inscription on the Extra virgin label.

Extra virgin olive oil has a rich and intense aroma and flavor of olives, and rather greenish in color

Pine nuts are used as another ingredient in the classic recipe. It is they who give the sauce the necessary texture.

Fresh pine nuts should be evenly colored and free from dark spots and rancid odor

Parmesan is an important ingredient in the sauce. It is recommended to use it in the classic recipe, this will provide the dish with an authentic taste.

High-quality parmesan has a complex, spicy-salty taste with hints of nuts and fruits

Homemade pesto recipes

Try to follow the proportions indicated in the recipes, this will provide the dish with the necessary texture and taste.

Classics of the genre

A stone mortar is recommended for making classic pesto.

Preference should be given to a spacious mortar with a large pestle

Ingredients:

• 50 g of basil;
• 100 ml olive oil;
• 50 g pine nuts;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• 1/2 tsp sea salt;
• 1 slice of lemon;
• 50–70 g of parmesan.

Recipe:

1. Place the torn basil leaves, salt in a mortar and pour in 30-40 ml of olive oil. Rub lightly.

   

   Already at the initial stage of making pesto, you can feel the tantalizing spicy aroma of Italian cuisine

2. Peel the garlic.

   

   It is enough to peel the garlic from the coarse peel, the thin translucent peel can be left on

3. Then add the nuts and garlic to the mass. Mash until puree.

   

   The mixture of basil, nuts and garlic should be thick

4. Grate the parmesan.

   

   Use a grater with the smallest diameter holes to grind the Parmesan

5. Add the cheese and remaining butter to the rest of the mixture and squeeze the lemon wedge into the mortar.

   

   Avoid Lemon Seeds in the Sauce

6. Rub for another 10-15 minutes.

   

   Take a sample only when the whole mass becomes homogeneous and the salt crystals completely dissolve

7. Ready sauce should stand for 20-25 minutes before serving.

   

   Additional time will allow the sauce ingredients to "make friends" and exchange flavors

Tomato pesto with walnuts

The presented recipe has an excellent aroma and rich spicy taste. You can use tomato pesto as a sauce for pizza or pasta, or as a filler for bruschetta.

Components:

• 80 ml olive oil;
• 8 sun-dried tomatoes;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• 2 tbsp. l. water;
• 100 g of basil;
• 100 g parmesan;
• 100 g of walnuts;
• 1/2 tsp sea salt.

Recipe:

1. Grind the walnuts with a blender.

   

   Grind walnuts at medium speed to get not buttery gruel, but nut crumbs

2. Grate the parmesan.

   

   Keep the parmesan in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before chopping

3. Add cheese, basil leaves, salt and water to the nuts in a blender bowl. Break through at medium speed and place in a bowl.

   

   The spicy mass should be thick and plastic

4. Slice the tomatoes.

   

   Cut the sun-dried tomatoes into medium slices, in which case the blender will not turn them into puree

5. Use a blender to chop the tomatoes and garlic and add olive oil to them.

   

   When chopping tomatoes with a blender, try to maintain their texture, for this do not use the highest speed

6. Now combine the walnut-basil mixture and the tomato-garlic mixture. Let the sauce sit for 30-40 minutes.

   

   Finished tomato pesto can be refrigerated for up to two weeks

Pesto sauce with zucchini - video

In my family, pesto didn't catch on at first. I made it according to a friend's recipe, which used dry basil from a store bag and regular sunflower oil. Such a dish did not please any of my household members, it seemed too unusual and oily. When I realized my mistake, I tried to make pesto according to the classic recipe. As a result, everyone liked the sauce so much that now we cook it both on weekdays and on holidays.

Both the classic pesto and its varieties are distinguished by a spicy taste and a breathtaking aroma. In addition, this sauce contains many valuable substances for health, as it is based on olive oil and nuts.