Pesto - a fragrant sauce from Italian Genoa with basil. Its preparation does not take much time, and the scope is very, very
extensive. In addition to the famous pasta "Pesto" sauce can be used in various snacks, served with fish or meat. In general, you need to learn it
do at home!
Homemade Pesto Sauce - General Cooking Principles
• Basil. Genoa culinary experts pay special attention to this ingredient. It’s believed that you need to use young twigs for the sauce,
no more than 5 cm in size. If the basil grows, an unpleasant bitterness may appear in the dish.
• Cheese. The original recipe uses parmesan. But more and more often at home, pesto is prepared with other varieties.
• Nuts. Initially, cedar nuts kernels were used in the recipes, but now you can increasingly find walnuts. However, he
also gives a pleasant taste and aroma, therefore has the right to be added. There are also recipes with cashews, peanuts, almonds. In general, the absence
pine nuts - this is not a reason to refuse to make fragrant sauce.
• Butter. It is very important for the sauce to use real extra virgin olive oil. It will give a wonderful flavor to the dressing,
very interesting aftertaste. If you don’t like such a high fat content in pesto, you can slightly reduce the amount of oil, but not
more than 30%.
• Garlic. It is added to all pesto sauces, usually a few cloves are needed. If the vegetable is not juicy enough, then it is better to grind it
separately, only then add to the total mass.
• Cooking. The ingredients for pesto sauce are always chopped. It is best to grind the products in a mortar. If no time or
desires, you can use an electric blender.
Classic Pesto Sauce at Home
The recipe for a real Pesto sauce at home with olive oil and pine nuts. This technology does not imply
the use of a knife, blender or other grinding equipment. Only a mortar and pestle, plus a cheese grater, you can’t do without it.
Ingredients
• 100 g parmesan;
• two cloves of garlic;
• 30 g of pine nuts kernels;
• a bunch of basil;
• 100 ml of natural olive oil.
Cooking
1. Tear off the leaves of washed basil from the branches, put in a mortar. Add a pinch of coarse salt. You can take sea salt.
We take the pestle and begin to grind the mass until gruel.
2. Peel the garlic, add to the basil.
3. The peeled kernels of pine nuts are also shifted to the total mass. Rub it with a pestle for two more minutes.
4. Now we are doing parmesan. No other cheese is used in the preparation of this sauce. Rub a piece on the finest grater.
5. Pour cheese to the rest of the product and rub it all together for a minute.
6. Now add the natural olive oil, but not all at once. Better pour in parts, each time thoroughly stirred.
7. We transfer the finished sauce to the gravy boat, decorate the top with a whole leaf of basil or kernels of pine nuts.
Homemade Pesto Sauce with Walnuts
A modified recipe for homemade sauce "Pesto" with the addition of walnuts. They produce a very interesting taste.
Ingredients
• a bunch of basil;
• 8 walnuts;
• 5 tablespoons of oil;
• 3 cloves of garlic;
• 55 g of parmesan.
Cooking
1. Rinse, dry the basil, tear it into pieces, throw it into a mortar. Add salt, grind until juice appears.
2. Now toss the peeled garlic.
3. Next add the walnuts. If you are afraid not to deal with them with a pestle, you can first chop with a knife.
4. Rub the aromatic mixture for a couple of minutes and add grated parmesan. Cook a few more minutes until the mass becomes more
homogeneous.
5. It's time to season Pesto with olive oil. Stir thoroughly, you can still salt to taste and you're done!
Pesto sauce at home with avocado
Avocado is a great addition to pesto sauce, very healthy and tasty. This fatty fruit will help reduce the amount of oil,
therefore, reduce calorie content.
Ingredients
• 1 avocado;
• 40 grams of basil;
• 3 cloves of garlic;
• 2 tablespoons of water;
• 1 small lemon;
• 1 tbsp. l pine nuts or almonds;
• 2 tablespoons of oil;
• salt with pepper.
Cooking
1. Wash the lemon with a brush, remove all wax deposits. Take a grater and erase the whole zest. Spread it immediately in the blender bowl. Cut
in half, squeeze the juice, pour there too.
2. Now we wash the basil, nip off the leaves, send after the lemon.
3. Add nuts and a couple of spoons of pure water.
4. Spread the cloves of garlic. We throw two pinches of salt, add oil and pepper. Beat with a blender.
5. Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone. We take out the pulp, discard the skin. Throw in a blender.
6. It remains only to beat well again, and the wonderful Pesto sauce is ready!
Homemade Pesto Sauce with Tender Cream Cheese
The recipe for homemade Pesto sauce, which has practically nothing to do with the original. It is less oily, but also very tasty and tender.
For cooking, you need any soft cream cheese, you can take it from the baths.
Ingredients
• a good bunch of basil;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• 120 g cream cheese;
• 1 tbsp. l pine nuts (kernels);
• 1 tbsp. l olive oil;
• some salt.
Cooking
1. Start with greens: rinse, dry the leaves, tear into pieces, fold into a mortar or into a cup from a blender. Second way
cooking does not require much effort and time.
2. Throw salt, peeled cloves of garlic, add nuts. Beat a couple of minutes with a blender. Or we arm ourselves with a pestle and grind 3-5
minutes.
3. Now add the soft cream cheese. Repeatedly beat or just grind everything together. To taste the salt, you can throw
a pinch of black pepper.
4. At the very end, pour a spoonful of olive oil.
Pesto sauce at home with arugula and almonds
Another very interesting recipe for homemade pesto sauce. Basil is added to it very little, the main green ingredient is arugula.
Ingredients
• 100 g of arugula;
• 3 branches of basil;
• 80 ml of oil;
• 2 tablespoons of almonds;
• 50 g of parmesan;
• 15 g of garlic;
• 0.5 lemons.
Cooking
1. Cut the almonds with slices with a knife or grind them immediately with a blender. If desired, use walnuts or ordinary peanuts, with it this
the sauce is also great.
2. Add the arugula and fresh basil, squeeze the lemon juice, lay the garlic cloves.
3. Beat the ingredients of the sauce with a blender for a minute to give the mass uniformity.
4. Add salt and pepper, pour in olive oil, add finely grated Parmesan. You can take it a little less or more.
5. Once again, beat the Italian sauce well and it can be served or used in the preparation of various dishes.
Homemade Pesto Sauce with Balsamic Vinegar
The recipe for a very fragrant and delicious homemade Pesto sauce. To the taste of vinegar, you can add more than indicated in the list. Besides
basilica, other greens are added here. Choose the most tender and juicy leaves.
Ingredients
• a bunch of dill;
• a bunch of basil;
• 50 g of parmesan;
• 3 cloves of garlic;
• 2-3 branches of juicy cilantro;
• 3 tablespoons of any nuts;
• 3 tablespoons balm. vinegar
• salt pepper.
Cooking
1. Tear hands washed greens. If the branches are hard, then we use only leaflets. Fold in a blender.
2. Peel the garlic cloves. This is the minimum amount. If you wish, you can add more, we do according to our taste preferences.
3. Now nuts. We take almonds, cedar or walnuts. Throws to the green. Put 0.3 tsp. salt and grind.
4. Now add the grated parmesan, pour in the balsamic vinegar, and pepper. Whisk again.
5. It remains only to add oil, mix again. You can cut the oil in this sauce and add a little avocado pulp with it
it also turns out delicious.
Homemade pesto sauce with sun-dried tomatoes and walnuts
Another wonderful recipe for homemade sauce. In Italian dishes, sun-dried tomatoes are often used. Why not add them to
pesto?
Ingredients
• 6-7 sun-dried tomatoes;
• 60 grams of parmesan;
• one large bunch of basil;
• 0.5 tsp sea salt;
• two full tablespoons of water;
• 0.3 cups of walnut kernels;
• 0.3 cups olive oil;
• two cloves of garlic;
• half a lemon.
Cooking
1. Peel the garlic, prepare the basil. Chop everything together in crumbs with a large knife. Transfer to a bowl.
2. Grate the parmesan, send to the total mass, pour in two tablespoons of water, throw salt, mash everything together for juiciness.
3. Add chopped garlic, chopped or grated walnuts to the pesto. We continue to rub.
4. Pour in lemon juice, vegetable oil, stir.
5. Dried tomatoes are cut into small pieces, the size of a rice kernel. We fall asleep in the sauce.
6. Stir, let the pesto brew for about half an hour.
Homemade Pesto Sauce - Tips & Tricks
• Pesto can be used not only for pasta, sandwiches or meat, with this sauce it turns out very tasty and fragrant pizza.
• If the sauce is not sharp enough, chopped green hot pepper pods can be added. It’s better not to lay red vegetables
so as not to spoil the classic color.
• Pesto is great in the refrigerator for several days, but all sterility rules must be observed: the products should be thoroughly washed
dry, use clean dishes, and the storage jar must be sterilized. Additionally, for safety, you can add
a small spoonful of vinegar. The lid must be found tight, air should not enter the sauce.
