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Homemade Pesto

Welcome back! 
Today, we have a great recipe for a homemade pasta sauce: Pesto! Pesto is a wonderful green sauce hailing from Genoa in the north of Italy, with its iconic blend of basil and pine nuts. It's something that you can really just enjoy with some good pasta by itself, or combined in part of a larger meal. The name pesto actually just comes from the word "to pound" (think like a pestle with a mortar), as traditionally the nuts and garlic and pounded in a pestle. Perhaps doing so is more traditional and fun, but there's nothing wrong with using a food processor like we did.

Homemade Pesto

Ingredients:

  • 2 packed cups (60 grams) basil
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup pine nuts (you can substitute for cashews)
  • 2 small cloves garlic, minced
  • 3/4 cups extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (35 grams) Parmesan cheese, grated

Directions:

  1. Wash the basil and dry with a paper/dish towel. Remove the stems.
  2. In the oven, lightly toast the nuts at 300°F for 8-10 minutes, just enough to get the flavor out. For cashews, you'll want to bake them at 325°F.
  3. In a food processor, pulse the nuts and garlic a couple times, just to get them a little processed.
  4. Add in the basil, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. Pulse until you reach your desired consistency.
  5. Add in the Parmesan and pulse to mix it in.
  6. Store in jars until you want to serve! You can add a little layer of olive oil on top to help preserve the sauce.
Pine nuts tend to be quite expensive, so people often substitute them with another nut. We used cashews because they seem to be the most similar to pine nuts in terms of color, texture, and taste. However, they need a little more to cook and process since they are larger than pine nuts. Another note is that the most traditional type of pasta to use with pesto is trofie, which has lots of ridges and so has more surface area for the pesto to be covered in.

-Chefpo
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