Warning: Pesto contains nuts and cheese, which some people may be allergic to.
Photo by Nathalie Jolie on Unsplash
Pesto is delicious. With pasta, potatoes, salads, chicken, fish; on bread.
Pesto is also doable at home. You just need a blender…doesn’t matter if it’s a stick blender or a food processor.
You also need creativity because Pesto isn’t just always pine nuts, Olive oil, and basil leaves…in fact, any combination of flavorful leaves, oily nuts, hard cheese, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper will result in “pesto”. Your OWN pesto, that is.
Most of all, you need to learn how to ensure your Pesto turns out okay.
Whichever Pesto recipe you decide to use, be it online or from a recipe book, be it pesto alla trapanese (Sicilian) or pesto alla genovese (the typical green one)… bearing in mind the following could leave you feeling happier about your Pesto:
#1 the order of blending ingredients may differ from person to person but typically garlic goes first and oil gets poured in last. In between garlic and oil, some do the order of “leaves > cheese + nuts” whereas some choose “nuts [cream it with the garlic] > leaves > cheese”…maybe we’re supposed to think of it like how in Asian cuisine, garlic goes first during stir-frying?.
#2 use a mix of sweet basil leaves and some other leafy green such as baby spinach, kale, arugula, parsley because then your Pesto will end up greener…but don’t leave out basil totally. And after washing your leaves dry them a bit because Pesto shouldn’t contain water at all.
#3 again, stream in your oil towards the end of blending because pouring in oil too early might stunt the disintegration of other ingredients…and like the leaves, the oil can be a mix of olive and vegetable oil.
#4 add salt and pepper at the end even though the cheese (most likely Parmesan) is salty.
#5 you don’t have to stick to pine nuts at all, and that’s not because you can’t afford them but because other nuts work just as well — such as cashew, almonds, and walnuts.
#6 chopping the cheese and nuts into small pieces makes the result of the blending process better.
#7 garlic has a strong taste and smell so don’t add too much of it…the mistake I make most often!
#8 there are two schools of thought: chunkier vs smoother pesto…the point is that whatever texture is okay.
Conclusion
Did I leave out any other helpful Pesto-making tip? Before starting the whole blending process, you can also toast your nuts to bring out the nut flavor (nut oils get released when nuts are heated)…don’t burn the nuts though or your Pesto will taste pretty bad. And it’s 100% true that Pesto can be kept in the freezer (store in a freezer-safe container) and refrigerator (cover with plastic wrap) — though some sources insist on not incorporating the cheese into the other ingredients yet if you’re planning on freezing it (just stir in grated cheese later when you want to eat Pesto). One more thing: some people add lemon juice to their pesto.
It’s hard to really go wrong with Pesto as long as you put the right amounts of the right ingredients and blend everything into a paste-like sauce, to YOUR taste, with the help of the pointers listed above.
*Note: Pesto actually means pound or crush in Italian because the original way to make Pesto is using a mortar + pestle.
