Who doesn’t love pesto? Almost no one. But everyone will if we choose the right ingredients! if we don’t waste the basil leaves, if we pay attention to the genuineness of the raw material, we can have fun making pesto Genovese at home.

The pesto that most of the world knows as the one-and-only “pesto” is, in fact, just one of the endless kinds. “Pesto” means “pounded,” from the verb pestare (“to pound”), because the old-fashioned way to make pesto (and the one that many cooks still swear by) is to pound the ingredients — a mixture of aromatic herbs, salt, garlic, olive oil, cheese, and sometimes nuts — with a mortar and pestle to form a paste, which could then be thinned with some water, vinegar, broth or verjuice to form a sauce. And not just a sauce for pasta, but for all kinds of foods. The origins for such a condiment date back at least as far as the ancient Romans.

Pesto Genovese domowej roboty
Pesto Genovese domowej roboty

The most famous of all pestos, pesto Genovese, originates from the coastal region of Liguria, where traditionally this fresh-basil pesto is made with a mixture of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and Pecorino, and eaten with either dried trenette (a long, thin, flattish pasta similar to tagliatelle) or fresh trofie, a short, chewy twisted pasta — with chopped potatoes and green beans cooked together with the pasta and all tossed together with the pesto sauce.

Pesto Genovese is part of the traditional Ligurian agri-food products recognized by the Ministry of Agricultural Policies and its name is subject to the specifications of the Genoa Pesto Consortium.

Pesto Genovese domowej roboty

HOW TO PREPARE THE PESTO GENOVESE?

Simple to prepare and perfect as a condiment for summer dishes. Here is the recipe for the pesto Genovese par excellence. Once it is ready, you can use it for a variety of different dishes.

Ingredients for pesto Genovese:

  • 50 g of basil leaves
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 15 g of pine nuts
  • 70 g of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (or Grana Padano)
  • 30 g of Pecorino cheese (Fiore Sardo)
  • 100 ml of extra virgin olive oil
  • A pinch of coarse sea salt
Pesto Genovese domowej roboty
Pesto Genovese domowej roboty

Method:

  1. The first step is to clean the basil leaves. Do it with a soft cloth, without getting them wet. Alternatively, wash them but let them dry perfectly. This step should be done gently because if the leaves are rubbed or they break they will turn black and make pesto taste bitter. We recommend using a marble mortar and a wooden pestle with which you will mash the two peeled garlic cloves and a few grains of salt first. If you are not a fan of mortar and pestle see our tips below.
  2. Then add the basil leaves and the remaining salt, and with circular motions continue to mash it: you will see that a vivid green liquid will come out of the basil, this is the time to put the pine nuts.
  3. Finally, continuing to stir, add the grated cheeses and the oil, a little at a time.
  4. The time you will devote to preparation is fundamental: it must be as short as possible, only in this way will you avoid that the basil and the other ingredients oxidize.
Pesto Genovese domowej roboty
Pesto Genovese domowej roboty

Tips:

Like apples and aubergines, basil also oxidizes. If you do not want to find pesto that, even if good, looks like squid ink, you will have to use the following tricks:

  1. work it at the speed of light (exposure to oxygen is one of the causes of oxidation).
  2. avoid overheating (the other temperatures are high). And here we have to talk about the blender.

If you don’t want to see the mortar and pestle, you can use the blender. If possible, use the plastic blades – metal makes the leaves bitter. You’ll get a creamier pesto, but still delicious. To prevent it from overheating, you can blend at the lowest possible speed and in jerks. That is, blend a few seconds, interrupt and start again.

Another trick – leave the cup and blades of the blender in the fridge for an hour before use.

Do you want to try our other Italian dishes? Yes! Here you will find a selection of various recipes from Italian cuisine.

Send to us photos of your creation and tag us on social media @cravemonkeypl (TwitterInstagramFacebook).

Pesto Genovese domowej roboty
Pesto Genovese domowej roboty