What is pesto in cooking? How to make pesto sauce at home step by step: the best recipes with photos, composition, ingredients

Pesto sauce is one of the most common dressings in Italy, appreciated by food lovers. Delicious sauce, combined with many traditional dishes, is characterized by simplicity and availability of ingredients. It is prepared from products that can be bought in the nearest store, and the taste is truly Italian - bright, rich, sunny. Do you want to know what pesto sauce is - what is it eaten with and how it is cooked? Read carefully, we will tell you everything.

The classic pesto genovese is the green dressing you see in every Italian store. It is called Pesto Genevese sauce a la Olivia. The last word in this phrase means oil. It is olive oil that is the basis of the sauce, so if you are going to reproduce an Italian dressing at home, do not skimp and find the best. For example, it could be Extra Virgin Oil.

They eat it with whatever they want. Italians put a little sauce in marinades, season ravioli with it, use it as a salad dressing, add it to make pasta and pizza. Good sauce with chicken and pork. It goes well with any type of meat.

How to make pesto yourself

To make basil pesto at home, you need to stock up on the following items:

• a good bunch of fresh green basil;
• a couple of fresh garlic cloves;
• a handful of peeled pine nuts, about 80 grams;
• 100 g parmesan;
• coarse sea salt to taste;
• 150 g olive oil.

There is another outlandish component there - the seeds of a special pine tree, but they are difficult to find, and they do not determine the taste of the sauce.
It is easier to mix all the components with a blender, but this will not be entirely correct. It is better to be patient and heat the sauce in a earthenware or metal mortar (wood is not good here, it is the mortar that preserves the aroma better). You need to start with herbs, which are rubbed, sprinkled with a little salt. Then nuts and garlic are added, then Parmesan and at the last moment everything is dressed with oil. The sauce is ready!

Oil for it should be taken only cold pressed - it is the most useful, tasty and retains a greater number of vitamins and mineral substances... But greens can be supplemented at your own discretion. In addition to basil, pesto can be prepared with parsley, oregano, and cilantro.

Pasta with pesto sauce

In general, adding green pesto to any pasta, be it spaghetti or any other type of pasta, will make the dish delicious and truly Italian. We recommend seasoning the boiled pasta with pesto sauce, and adding a slight sourness to the dish with small cherry tomatoes. Sliced ​​mozzarella cheese will make the taste of this amazing dish even more delicate and creamy.

This is how it is done.

1. Wash 300 g of fresh cherry tomatoes and cut into halves.
2. Boil 300 g of pasta in well salted water until al dente is ready, discard. Leave about half a glass of drained water for the sauce.
3. In this water, dilute the pesto sauce to a thin yogurt, add tomatoes, ground black pepper, mix everything, transfer the boiled pasta to the sauce and, stirring, serve on plates, decorating the dish with cheese slices on top (about 150 g is enough). A sprig of fresh basil is also suitable for decoration.

How to use sauce in pizza making

Why not diversify the taste of pizza, replacing the usual tomato sauce green pesto? Simply spread the Genovese sauce thick enough on the pizza base and then add whatever is usually added to the pizza. The taste is provided bright and rich!

Basil pesto bread

It turns out very tasty green italian bread with pesto sauce.

Cooking:

• 350 g wheat flour;
• 220 ml of mineral water;
• 1 egg;
• half a spoonful of salt and a large spoonful of sugar;
• one and a half teaspoons of yeast.

Prepared pesto sauce at the rate of: for 50 mg of oil, 2 bunches of herbs, 5 cloves of garlic, half a spoonful of salt.

To cook yeast dough, allow to come up, knead and wait for the re-rise. Then the dough is rolled out into a rectangular layer, greased with green mass, rolled up and not cut along the very end to make two tails. They are intertwined like a tourniquet and, having firmly blinded the ends, are placed on a greased baking sheet. After half an hour of proofing, bake in the oven at 190 degrees for forty minutes.

Red pesto Rosso - what goes with?

The second version of the famous Italian pesto is a red sauce, which is prepared on the basis of olive oil with the addition of sun-dried tomatoes... It is spicy and serves as a sauce in a different manner. It is usually used to dress spaghetti, to make pizza, and to add to meat dishes. However, the scope of application is as wide as in classic version green pesto.

To make red rosso sauce, you will need:

• 100 g sun-dried tomatoes;
• 100 g cherry tomatoes;
• 100 g of good olive oil;
• 100 g of cheese (Italians use Romano Pecorino);
• some almonds in petals for the sauce and to decorate it;
• garlic.

The sauce is very simple to prepare. Pieces of sun-dried tomatoes are first put into the blender's bowl, then basil, then garlic in cloves freed from the inner arrows is put, finally, the oil is poured, cheese and almonds cut into small pieces are added (you can leave a little on the sprinkle of the dish). Everything is ground in a blender until homogeneous mass.

The most popular combination of red rosso pesto is with spaghetti. Combine pasta cooked to al dente state with cooked red pesto. To make the sauce easier to distribute over the pasta, add a little water drained from the pasta to it. And stir quickly. It will be very aromatic and tasty. For spiciness, red chili peppers are usually added to the sauce, freed from the seeds and cut into pieces. Pesto is ground in a blender and stored in a tightly closed jar. Top it can be poured with olive oil.

Traditional Italian soup Minestrone

Green pesto is an essential part of the traditional Italian minestrone soup. More precisely, its Genoese version, which differs from the minestrone of other regions in that green pesto dressing is necessarily added to it and the Genoese cook soup with a thinner consistency.
Like other soups, this is a vegetable dish, but you can cook it not only on water, but also on meat broth... Mandatory ingredients - legumes, onions, celery, carrots, tomatoes. Plus other vegetables that are added in season.

1. Take one onion, a couple of celery stalks and a couple of carrots, cut into small cubes.
2. Finely chop two or three potatoes, a small zucchini, pepper and three tomatoes.
3. Fry onions with carrots and celery in two tablespoons of olive oil.
4. Reducing the fire to the lowest, put the other vegetables and simmer them in juice for another quarter of an hour. At the end, add the ready-made beans from the jar.
5. About five minutes before the end of cooking, add 50 g of small pasta and a handful of frozen green peas. Let it simmer and put a couple of tablespoons of the prepared pesto sauce before the end of cooking.

With seafood

Original warm salad can be quickly cooked with seafood and pesto.

It is prepared instantly, the taste is unusual, and the following products will be required:

• seafood (you can take mussels, shrimps, squids, octopuses as a mixture or separately);
• some cherry tomatoes;
• bell pepper;
• fennel and asparagus;
• spices suitable for seafood;
• pesto sauce.

1. Grill the finished seafood mixture a little. If they are raw, then the mussels and octopus should be boiled a little, just a couple of minutes.
2. Blanch the asparagus a little, rinse cold water, cut.
3. Chop the pepper and tomatoes at random.
4. Combine everything and season with a couple of tablespoons of pesto sauce.

Italian classic sauce basil pesto is a great addition to boiled pasta, pizza, or. It is prepared quite simply, and if you use a blender instead of a mortar, the whole process will take a few minutes.

Pesto is refreshing, slightly spicy taste and stands out for its pronounced green color, which will surely add originality to any Italian dish.

Ingredients:

• green basil - a bunch (about 30-40 g);
• olive oil - about 50 ml;
• Parmesan cheese (or any hard cheese) - 50 g;
• pine nuts - 30 g;
• garlic - 2-3 teeth.

Classic pesto sauce at home

How to make pesto sauce in a mortar

1. For pine nuts to acquire a more pronounced taste and rich aroma, fry them in a dry frying pan over moderate heat. There is no need to bring the nuts to darkening - it takes only 2-3 minutes of frying, during which the kernels must be constantly mixed.
   
2. We wash the basil with cold water and dry it, then we cut off all the green leaves - the stems will not be useful to us. There are two ways to prepare pesto sauce - in a blender and in a marble mortar. The first option is faster - all ingredients are placed in the blender bowl and simply chopped until smooth. However, the second method is considered more "correct", classical. Therefore, if you have time, we advise you to give preference to it.
   
3. Put clean and dry basil leaves in a mortar and knead them in a green "gruel" in a circular motion. Add toasted and cooled nuts.
   
4. Cheese room temperature rub with fine shavings and load into a mortar. Next, squeeze out the peeled garlic cloves.
   
5. We continue to grind the mass into the most homogeneous paste. Gradually pour in the olive oil. Do not forget that pesto is just a sauce, and not a thin soup or thick porridge, so the dosage of oil is varied taking into account the resulting consistency. We remove the sample, add salt if necessary.
   

Serving classic pesto sauce to boiled pasta, pizza, or simply spread on slices of fresh bread. Bon Appetit!

Pesto is a famous green Italian sauce with a bright, refreshing taste. Pesto was invented in Genoa, in the region of Liguria, which is located in northern Italy. The sauce got its name from the Italian word "grind". And it is not without reason that it is consonant with the word "pestle". The pesto sauce is prepared by carefully grinding all the ingredients in a marble mortar with a pestle. This sauce is interesting in that no heat treatment is required to prepare it: the ingredients just need to be chopped and mixed. There is a hard and fast rule of thumb: no metal when making pesto, as basil's taste deteriorates from interaction with metal. But modern housewives do not have time to grind basil with garlic in a mortar for an hour. So the most common use of pesto is a food processor.

The first mention of pesto is found in the Genoa Cookbook, written by Giovanni Battista Ratto and published in 1863. It was there that the first written recipe for pesto was given, which included basil, olive oil, garlic, pine nuts and grated hard cheese.

The pesto sauce is so popular in Liguria that they even started hosting the Genoese pesto world championship. the traditional way, in a mortar. Basil for the championship is grown in Liguria in a special greenhouse, since real pesto, of course, is obtained only from Ligurian basil. And this is indeed so: Ligurian basil is completely devoid of the taste of mint and has a particularly delicate refined aroma.

Classic pesto is easy to prepare

Pesto sauce is considered not only a healthy and natural product, but also a democratic product, since the ingredients for it are available to everyone. Plus, it's very easy to make. For pesto you will need:

70 g fresh basil from Genoa. Well, if basil hasn't been delivered from Genoa yet, grab regular green basil from the local market. The leaves should not be too large.

30 g of peeled pine nuts. Remember to brown them before you start making the sauce. And know - nuts in pesto are not the main thing. The sauce should not be visibly nutty. Pine nuts only add originality to the sauce.

60 g grated hard cheese Parmigiano Reggiano.

40 g of grated Pecorino or Fiore Sardo cheese.

2 cloves of garlic.

80 g extra virgin olive oil.

Step-by-step instruction

Wash the basil leaves in cold water and then pat dry with a kitchen towel. Crush the garlic and pine nuts in a marble mortar. Add some sea salt and basil to the mortar and begin to grind everything in a circular motion. Do not use a blender if you are not in a hurry: basil ground in a blender oxidizes quickly because it gets hot. Consequently, the pesto will quickly lose its signature green color and turn brown. As soon as the mixture in the mortar looks like green cream, add two types of cheese to the sauce. Needless to say, the cheeses must be grated beforehand. The mixture is pounded again with a pestle, and at the end olive oil is added. If the sauce is for sandwiches, you can add less oil, and if you need the pesto with the pasta, thin it with a little more oil. Pesto food should be at the same temperature and never fresh from the refrigerator. It is not worth making pesto in commercial quantities. But if you have more sauce than you can eat at a time, put the sauce in a jar, top with olive oil and refrigerate with a lid or plastic wrap on top. For two to three days, the sauce will be quite edible.

Provencal pesto is slightly different from Genoese. Do not put pine nuts in it. Almonds are sometimes used instead, and mint leaves are added to the basil. Sicilian pesto includes tomatoes and almonds, but much less basil. In Germany, pesto is generally made from wild garlic, not basil. And very often, instead of rather expensive pine nuts, cheaper nuts are added to pesto.

This flavorful sauce is a classic Italian cuisine... Its traditional version is based on basil and pine nuts. But the list of components can be changed depending on preference. And you don't have to buy pesto sauce - do it without any problems at home. Ready or homemade, pesto is a great addition to pasta, fish, poultry, salads and sandwiches.

Ingredients

• 100 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 50 g basil leaves
• 70 g peeled pine nuts
• 70 g Parmesan cheese
• 0.5 tsp salt

Preparation

A bit of history

Pesto, like many other Mediterranean delicacies, boasts a long tradition. Probably, a paste of crushed cheese, garlic, olive oil and herbs was eaten in antiquity. Over time, basil has become its main ingredient. The tradition of making delicacies based on this plant has become widespread, in particular, in the Italian province of Liguria. Thanks to its capital, Genoa, the most popular pesto variety has come to be called Genovese. It is assumed that sailors leaving the local port took on board a lot of basil paste, which during long sea expeditions helped to protect themselves from diseases, in particular scurvy. Around 1863, the famous cookbook on the culinary traditions of Liguria was published in Genoa. Its author, Giovanni Batista Ratto, posted this pesto recipe in it. You need to take 3-4 cloves of garlic, basil, and if there is none, marjoram and parsley, Dutch cheese and even parmesan, grind and mix all this until smooth. Combine it with oil, stir well. This is how the recipe sounded then, and it is still relevant today.

They say that the roots of pesto sauce go back to antiquity, that pesto is perhaps the "oldest" of the historically known sauces. His homeland is Persia, from where pesto was brought to Italy, where he "approved" his classical technology and variations. It is also said that the sauce has existed in its present form for several centuries, that it is rather "conservative" and does not recognize improvisation. For example, Italian chefs insist on crushing ingredients in a mortar - such is the tradition.

The valuable composition of pesto

Pesto is not only tasty, but also a healthy dish, especially if you prepare it at home using natural products.

Basil. Basil deserves special mention. Per medicinal properties this plant is responsible essential oils for example, eugenol, the active particles of which have a strong anti-inflammatory effect. Also, the plant is a treasure trove of valuable tannins and flavonoids. It regulates the digestive system, improves digestion, and facilitates the absorption of nutrients from food. Basil activates metabolism and has a good effect on the nervous system.

Pine nuts. No less valuable are pine nuts, which we replace with pine nuts. Edible seeds of one of the pine species are a rich source of vitamins E, K, B1 and potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, copper and manganese. They have antioxidant effects, boost immunity, regulate blood circulation, and even help you lose weight.

Other classic pesto ingredients have excellent nutritional benefits as well.

Parmesan. Thus, parmesan supplies the body with a valuable, easily digestible protein, and due to its long aging period, it is a treasure trove of valuable tripeptides, which, in particular, effectively lower blood pressure.

Olive oil. Olive oil contains a lot of unsaturated fatty acids and vitamin E, which makes it a powerful antioxidant and helps cleanse the body of toxins. In addition, it lowers the level of "bad" cholesterol and even promotes weight loss.

Garlic... Another component of pesto, garlic, is a powerful natural antibiotic that has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects, regulates blood pressure and stimulates the secretion of digestive juices.

Attention, finished product!

Can all of these ingredients be found in ready-made products like pesto that are sold in the store? Unfortunately, the answer is ambiguous. Because in many such cases, various substitutes appear on the scene. For instance, olive oil is replaced by sunflower, which, although it is a valuable vegetable fat, still significantly affects the taste of the dish. As part of ready-made pastes real parmesan usually accounts for a very small proportion. Often there only yellow cheese is added. Expensive pine nuts replace cashew, which makes the pesto taste different from that of a traditional delicacy native to Genoa. You should read the labels of these products because sometimes they contain unhealthy additives, such as those derived from corn. glucose-fructose syrup. This substance has practically no nutritional value, but it can raise bad cholesterol levels, the risk of diabetes and lead to obesity. Manufacturers actively use preservatives, for example, sorbic acid (E200) not very useful for allergy sufferers.

Homemade pesto: classics and variations

The best option is to make pesto sauce at home, especially since a lot of culinary experience is not required for this. Just prepare 3 handfuls of basil, a handful of pine nuts, a clove of garlic, a handful of grated parmesan, olive oil, salt and pepper. Basil, garlic and nuts need to be chopped in a blender (although many people still try to use manual chopping, which supposedly improves the taste of the dish). Then cheese is added, all this is seasoned with a pinch of salt and pepper and, finally, the future sauce is enriched with olive oil. Its amount determines the consistency.

except classic ingredients sauce, sometimes mint is included in pesto recipes, and sheep cheeses are used instead of parmesan (cheap varieties that replace parmesan in our country do not count, we are talking about tradition). Purple basil is never used, but in some areas, instead of green basil, parsley is pounded in a mortar. The original version of the recipe for pesto sauce originated in Russia: because of its green color, wild garlic is used instead of basil leaves.

An important point to know: there are no exact proportions of pesto! Experienced housewives mix all the ingredients according to their intuition!

Of course, the composition can be changed. If you add sun-dried tomatoes, you get another Italian delicacy - pesto alla siciliana... Basil goes well with parsley, coriander, mint, spinach, arugula. Pine nuts can be substituted for walnuts, almonds, pistachios, and even pumpkin or sunflower seeds. Enriches the taste homemade sauce lemon zest, chili or sweet paprika. The finished pesto should be put in a jar, filled with olive oil: this will preserve its color and extend its service life. Store the sauce in the refrigerator.

• This is how it could be.

Genoa is considered the birthplace of pesto sauce. Scientists have found out that the dish was born back in the days of the Roman Empire, but it was raised to the rank of a national dish only in the 19th century. Perhaps for the Russian ear the name of the sauce sounds intricate, but in fact, everything is extremely simple: pestare in Italian means "to rub". Why would it be, you ask. And besides, many years ago, when the blender did not exist at all, housewives ground the ingredients for liquid seasoning in a mortar. Today, all adherents of the authentic recipe do the same. The world's chefs are sure: the mushy chopping of greens with the help of modern kitchen appliances kills the very spirit of the dish.

For the first time, the recipe for Italian pesto sauce was published in cookbook at the very beginning of the 19th century. Therefore, 1800 is officially recognized as the year of birth. classic recipe in its modern sense.

Traditional components

The classic recipe for pesto sauce is called Genoese. In the original language, the name of the dish is spelled Pesto alla genovese. The composition of the authentic, according to researchers, gravy includes basil, grown and lovingly harvested in the suburbs of the seaside city, a large sea ​​salt, pine seeds (pine type) and finely chopped garlic. There is one more ingredient, because of which the classic version of the sauce is considered inaccessible to many housewives of the planet. This is a hard sheep's cheese purchased from a small home farm at the foot of Mount Antola. After thorough grinding in a mortar, all the ingredients of the traditional dish are seasoned with Ligurian olive oil. And only the first spin. The Genoese do not use anything else for pesto.

Of course, Italians have other recipes for making their favorite sauce. Moreover, each region can boast of its own, special method. For example, Sunny Sicily. Local mothers and grandmothers always add tomatoes to the sauce. And the Neapolitans completely threw out sheep's cheese from the recipe, which is not so easy to get in their region, and supplied pesto sun-dried tomatoes and almonds.

Therefore, in the case of Italian sauce, you don't have to be afraid to experiment. It can be cooked with lemon balm, mint leaves and even sprigs of dill, traditional for our area. The main secret- mortar and extra virgin olive oil.

The inhabitants of Italy are so fond of their national gravy that they annually organize large-scale competitions for its preparation. Both professional chefs and home-grown chefs take part in the race. The main competition, the Pesto alla genovese world cooking championship, is held annually.

What is the value

Italy's national sauce is not just delicious. It's also very useful. Provided that you are preparing a liquid seasoning from homemade products and are knowingly confident in their quality. You can find out more about the beneficial properties of the main ingredients of the sauce from the table.

Table - Beneficial features main ingredients of pesto

Ingredient	Beneficial features
Basil	- Possesses anti-inflammatory effect; - contains flavonoids that affect the elasticity of blood vessels; - rich in tannins that remove toxins; - improves digestion; - relieves stress; - stimulates metabolic processes
Pine nuts	- Powerful antioxidant; - strengthen the immune system; - contribute to weight loss; - rich in vitamins K, B1 and E; - a storehouse of iron, potassium and calcium; - regulator of the circulatory system
Parmesan	- A treasure trove of protein that is easy to digest; - contains many tripeptides that reduce blood pressure
Olive oil	- Rich in vitamin E; - contains unsaturated fatty acids; - the most powerful antioxidant; - neutralizes cholesterol; - speeds up metabolic processes
Garlic	- Natural antibiotic; - has an anti-inflammatory effect; - antibacterial agent; - stomach stimulant

Homemade pesto recipes

A homemade pesto recipe can include a wide variety of ingredients. It all depends on your preference and the contents of your refrigerator. Below are some of the most popular ways to create Italian gravy. Each of them you can cook exactly according to the recipe, or you can supplement it with your own - the author's "zest".

Green

Peculiarity. The classic culinary genre assumes exactly this color of the sauce - the color of juicy greenery, five minutes ago, collected from the garden. The green gravy is recommended for the traditional italian soup minestrone, as well as creamy risotto. Liquid seasoning will perfectly emphasize the taste of any pasta and become perfect complement to "Caprese" - an appetizer made with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella and dressed with oregano and olive oil.

You will need:

• lemon basil - a bunch;
• pine nuts - three tablespoons;
• sheep cheese - 30 g;
• garlic - two cloves;
• parmesan - 30 g;
• olive oil - 80 ml;
• salt - optional.

Cooking algorithm

1. The basil pesto sauce recipe involves grating two types of cheese first.
2. We send garlic, herbs, nuts and chopped cheese into a mortar and once again carefully grind the ingredients, mixing them together.
3. Lightly salt the almost finished sauce and slowly pour the olive oil into it, stirring constantly.
4. The finished gravy should have a consistency of 15% sour cream.

Yellow

Peculiarity. Yellow pesto is best known for being an essential ingredient in avocado puree soup. But, by and large, any first course can be supplemented with this gravy. Its taste is especially beneficial in pumpkin cream soup as well as soups seasoned with roasted sesame seeds. For cooking, ricotta cheese and two types of nuts are used - walnuts and pine nuts. If possible, pine nuts can be replaced with more traditional Italian pine nuts.

You will need:

• aromatic basil - half a bunch;
• walnuts - a tablespoon;
• garlic - a couple of cloves;
• parmesan - 30 g;
• ricotta - 170 g;
• olive oil - half a cup.

Cooking algorithm

1. Grind the nuts with a blender. You can do it all together, without dividing it into varieties.
2. Grind the parmesan on a grater and grind the ricotta in the same way.
3. All chopped ingredients, as well as garlic and basil, are thoroughly ground in a mortar.
4. We fill the mixture vegetable oil until thick sour cream.

Red

Peculiarity. If you intend to serve grilled meat or baked vegetables for dinner, red Italian seasoning will be the best addition to this set of dishes. To make red pesto at home, you will need sun-dried tomatoes and capers. However, today these ingredients are not a gimmick even for our places. They can be freely purchased at any major supermarket. By the way, red seasoning is especially good for baked eggplant. Try it.

You will need:

• lemon basil - half a bunch;
• cedar seeds - three tablespoons;
• garlic - two cloves;
• grated parmesan - 50 g;
• sun-dried tomatoes - 80 g;
• balsamic vinegar - a tablespoon;
• salt to taste;
• capers - a tablespoon;
• olive oil - half a cup.

Cooking algorithm

1. All ingredients except balsamic vinegar and capers, put into a blender bowl and chop slowly. It is important to set the minimum speed on the kitchen appliance so that the mixture does not turn into mush.
2. After chopping, add the capers and vinegar to the common bowl. We mix.
3. Gradually add olive oil to the base for the sauce until the mixture reaches the desired consistency.

Violet

Peculiarity. The purple liquid Italian seasoning goes well with saltwater fish and other seafood. It is served with mussels and rapa, and the Spaniards love to season their traditional paella with this sauce or dip boiled asparagus in it. The seasoning takes on a peculiar color thanks to the purple basil. While all the previous ones feature green - the so-called lemon basil. Melted butter gives the dish a special aroma.

You will need:

• arugula - a bunch;
• purple basil - a quarter of a bunch;
• cedar seeds - three tablespoons;
• garlic - two cloves;
• ghee butter - a tablespoon;
• olive oil - half a cup;
• lemon juice - half a teaspoon.

Cooking algorithm

1. Grind the greens along with the nuts in a blender bowl, setting the minimum speed of the appliance.
2. We drown a piece in a water bath butter and pour it into the mixture.
3. We fill the base with olive oil and do not forget to salt to taste.

The French have changed italian recipes and freed them from nuts. In this European country a traditional dish neighbors are even called differently - "pisto" instead of "pesto".

Russian variant

Peculiarity. The Russians also distinguished themselves by their originality. They decided that since parsley is more common in their latitudes, it means that it can be safely replaced with basil and arugula. However, the domestic recipe is no less tasty and harmonious. Well, let the taste be a little different. The main secret is in the grinding of ingredients and vegetable oil. But only olive and exclusively first pressing. The recipe for green parsley pesto has a creamier texture. In addition, for our brother, the taste of parsley is more familiar and dearer. While the specific taste and aroma of basil is not loved by everyone. You will not surprise the domestic housewife with walnuts either, so the use of cedar seeds in national recipe used less often.

You will need:

• parsley - a large bunch;
• mint - half a bunch;
• creamy cheese - 100 g;
• lemon - half;
• garlic - two cloves;
• coarse sea salt - to taste;
• olive oil - for thickening;
• walnuts - a quarter cup.

Cooking algorithm

1. Thoroughly wash the herbs and mint and lay them on paper napkins until they are completely dry.
2. Chop the green ingredients of the dish with a knife and put in a blender bowl.
3. Add the nuts there and grind the ingredients at a slow speed.
4. Then we send cream cheese into the bowl, squeeze out the juice of half a lemon and salt to taste.
5. Stir, add vegetable oil until the desired consistency is obtained and serve.

And to be honest, the variety of modern interpretations allows us to call pesto sauce any liquid gravy of a uniform consistency from herbs with the addition of nuts and garlic and seasoned with olive oil. Therefore, do not be surprised if you find mayonnaise, pistachios or cilantro in the list of ingredients for some of the sauce variations. The former is often replaced with cheese, the latter are nuts, and the third is even made the main ingredient in liquid gravy - instead of basil or parsley.

What is combined with

If you ask an Italian what pesto sauce is eaten with, he will round his eyes and smile. The creators of the famous green seasoning add it to any dish - meat, fish, and "naked" pasta. They eat pesto for breakfast, spreading sauce over toast or dipping hot oven tortillas in it.

• With meat. Any meat dish seasoned with a creamy sauce, takes on a piquancy. And the light aftertaste that the nuts leave only whet the already burning appetite.
• With fish. Fish dishes are light and fresh. Italian sauce makes them more nutritious and more interesting to taste.
• With pizza. Italians have such a concept as green pizza. In fact, this is the most ordinary pizza - a tortilla stuffed with all sorts of things. Just before laying out the filling, a thin layer of dough must be greased with a Genoese mixture. Well, it turns out very fragrant and appetizing.
• With mashed potatoes. For refueling mashed potatoes you need more fat and thick sauce than, for example, for pasta or bread spread. By the way, in a similar way, you can season both celery puree and chickpea puree.
• With salted pastries. Add pesto to baked goods - clean italian tradition however, it has long been elevated to the rank of international. A few spoons aromatic sauce it's not a sin to add fettuccine, pancakes, homemade bread or puff pies with meat, vegetable or fish filling.

Notes to the chef

Every Italian housewife has her own secret of making pesto that drives her family crazy. Rarely does anyone share culinary secrets, but they managed to find out some of them from the mothers and grandmothers of the sunny country. Take a closer look at the following eight guidelines.

1. Ingredient temperature. Pesto is one of the few liquid condiments that doesn't need to be cooked. There is no need to boil, steam or fry the ingredients. It is enough just to grind them together in one bowl. But it is extremely important that each element of the dish has approximately the same temperature as other elements. Therefore, before starting cooking, it is worth taking all the ingredients out of the refrigerator and letting them reach room temperature.
2. Nuts for every taste. You can replace pine or cedar seeds with any other nuts. Even pistachios or cashews. This is a fertile land for experimentation. After all, it seems step by step recipe the pesto sauce is the same, but the taste of the dish is completely different.
3. Parmesan is a priority. Parmesan is considered one of those ingredients that have no alternative in liquid seasoning. This cheese adds zest to the dish. But if you can't find it, or you can't afford to buy such cheese, you can take any hard one. However, at the end, the sauce will have to be slightly salted.
4. For bread - one, for pasta - another. The consistency of the dish depends on your intentions regarding its further use. For example, a thinner sauce can be served with pasta. But on bread it is more convenient to spread the seasoning thicker. Keep this in mind when cooking and add a little more oil if necessary.
5. Oxidation of basil. It is important to know that basil, when it touches the metal, oxidizes this very second. Therefore, when choosing this ingredient as the basis of a liquid seasoning, it is better to grind it with a mortar and pestle.
6. Preparation for the winter. In the frosty season, finding basil in the store is not an easy task. If you love pesto as much as the Italians love it, do the following. Prepare the sauce in summer or fall, pour it into ice cube trays and freeze. Once you take the mold out of the freezer, you will have many portioned pieces iced seasoning.
7. No ice cream basil. Some housewives, who do not know the secrets of freezing the sauce, freeze basil for future use. Unfortunately, thawed basil loses its former elasticity of the leaves, and the taste with the aroma disappears somewhere. Therefore, freezing the grass is not a solution.
8. Shelf life. Homemade Italian seasoning can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. If you vitally need to keep the dish fresh for as long as possible, pour the prepared sauce with vegetable oil (similar to what you used for dressing), cover with a nylon lid and send it to the refrigerator door.

Of course, you don't have to bother too much and bring a can of your favorite sauce from the store. But under the industrial cover is not at all what the soul desires. Instead of expensive olive, manufacturers add to the dish sunflower oil... Fragrant cedar seeds are being replaced with budget cashews. For long-term storage, preservatives are added to the seasoning, which allergy sufferers are so afraid of. And as a thickener, a harmful glucose-based syrup is used.

For a creative person, making pesto sauce is a pleasure. The seasoning is combined with a variety of dishes familiar to our country and adds some kind of "zest" to everyone. The sauce is the mood of your culinary masterpiece... And it depends only on you what it will be like today: playful and light, gentle, mischievous or with a cunning twist.

Reviews: "My secret is cilantro greens and a little ground pepper"

The sauce is delicious. It can be eaten even without adding to anything. It is satisfying thanks to nuts and cheese. To be honest, I added a little cilantro and a little ground pepper to the basil, but this did not spoil the taste of this wonderful sauce.

Tanusha, https://webspoon.ru/receipt/sous-pesto

Well, I tried it, now I will always make pesto sauce, the whole family really liked it. I made it with pine nuts, that is, I went broke, but I will continue to try with other nuts, otherwise it’s expensive. And my Parmesan is not very expensive, I buy ready-made powder in bags of 100 rubles, add it to salads, now I’ll be here.

Primerova Gulnara, http://volshebnaya-eda.ru/kollekcia-receptov/sousy/pesto/#ixzz4w2FvV2ue

The sauce turned out to be just wonderful, you will lick your fingers! Just be careful with peeled pine nuts! After consumption, bitterness may develop in the mouth, which will last for several days. I have been suffering for the 2nd day.

Kirrra, https://gotovim-doma.ru/recipe/597-sous-pesto

Pesto is just a pasty sauce that is not boiled. Usually, the components are wiped in a mortar or mixer. Genoese - the most famous consists of basil (fresh there, but I think it's dry), parmesan (and / or pecorino), olive oil, salt, garlic and pine nuts (can be fried, or maybe you need to?). There are some modern options, it seems with pumpkin seed oil + pumpkin seeds... Pink pestle: dried tomatoes + hot peppers + cheese + salt + olive oil. In general, you can certainly experiment and blow some of the available products.

Lovely, http://www.woman.ru/home/culinary/thread/3547583/