Italian cuisine is famous for its sauces. However, you don’t have to go to Italy or a European restaurant to enjoy the wonderful taste of pesto sauce. Anyone can make this sauce on their own.

It is believed that pesto sauce first appeared in the Roman Empire, however, the first documentary evidence mentioning the preparation of this sauce dates back to the mid-19th century. The sauce is most often served with pasta, used when cooking soups, and some even spread it on bread and crackers. There are many variations of pesto, but there are 3 ingredients found in every recipe– this is basil and cheese. Traditionally, the color of the sauce is green, but if you add sun-dried tomatoes during cooking, it will turn red.

Pesto sauce. Classic recipe

You will need:

• basil – 1 bunch,
• garlic – 1 clove,
• pine nuts – 40 grams,
• Parmesan cheese – 50 grams,
• salt - to taste,
• olive oil – 7 teaspoons.

Cooking method

• Wash the basil. Let's dry it. We cut it coarsely.
• We clean the pine nuts from their shells.
• Grate the cheese.
• Mix all ingredients, add olive oil.
• Grind in a mortar.
• If necessary, add a little salt. Mix. The sauce is ready!

The classic method of making pesto involves grinding the ingredients in a mortar, but to save time and effort, you can mix the ingredients in a blender. It is this method that is currently used not only by housewives, but even by chefs of Italian restaurants.

Parsley and cilantro pesto

You will need:

• cilantro – 2/3 bunch,
• parsley – 1/3 bunch,
• parmesan – 50 grams (can be replaced with any hard cheese),
• pine nuts – 30 grams (if necessary, you can use pistachios or cashews instead),
• olive oil – 100 ml,
• salt - to taste.

Cooking method

• Rinse the greens. Let's dry it. Separate the leaves from the stems. Chop coarsely.
• We peel the garlic. Cut into slices.
• Grate the cheese.
• Place some of the greens, cheese, nuts and garlic in a blender.
• Add a little olive oil.
• Grind the ingredients, gradually adding the remaining herbs and oil to the mass. It is not at all necessary to grind the sauce until smooth; just combine and chop the ingredients a little. Ready!

Arugula pesto

You will need:

• arugula – 2 bunches,
• peeled green pistachios – 1/3 cup,
• olive oil – 1/4 cup,
• Asiago cheese – 50 grams,
• lemon zest - 2 teaspoons,
• lemon juice – 1 tablespoon,
• salt - to taste.

Cooking method

• Wash the arugula. Let's dry it.
• Grate the cheese on a fine grater.
• We peel the garlic. Grind in a blender.
• Add cheese and pistachios. Grind.
• Add arugula leaves and lemon zest.
• Add lemon juice. Grind to a paste.
• Continuously whisking, add olive oil to the sauce.
• Salt and pepper. If necessary, add a little more lemon juice. Mix thoroughly. We put the sauce in a cool place, after a couple of hours it is ready to eat.

Sun-dried tomato and walnut pesto

You will need:

• basil – 1 bunch,
• sun-dried tomatoes – 6 pieces,
• garlic – 1 clove,
• Parmesan cheese – 50 grams,
• chopped walnuts – 1/3 cup,
• olive oil – 1/3 cup,
• water – 2 tablespoons,
• sea ​​salt – 1/2 teaspoon,
• freshly ground black pepper – 1/4 teaspoon.

Cooking method

• We peel the garlic. Finely chop.
• Wash the basil. Let's dry it. Separate the leaves from the stems.
• Grate the cheese.
• We cut the sun-dried tomatoes.
• Place everything listed in the food processor bowl.
• Add water.
• Salt and pepper.
• Grind until smooth, gradually adding olive oil. As soon as the pesto acquires the consistency of a thick paste, turn off the blender, transfer the sauce to a glass jar and we can take a sample.

Asparagus and pistachio pesto

You will need:

• green asparagus – 200 grams,
• fresh spinach leaves – 100 grams,
• Parmesan cheese – 50 grams,
• garlic – 1 clove,
• olive oil – 3 tablespoons,
• peeled pistachios - 2 tablespoons,
• lemon juice - to taste,
• salt - to taste.

Cooking method

• Boil asparagus in boiling water. We rinse. Cut into small pieces.
• Wash the spinach. Let's dry it. We chop.
• We peel the garlic.
• Grate the cheese.
• Combine the prepared ingredients in a blender, adding olive oil and lemon juice.
• Salt and grind until smooth. Italian sauce is ready!

Mayonnaise pesto

You will need:

• basil – 1/2 bunch,
• vegetable oil – 2 cups,
• olive oil – 2 tablespoons,
• mustard – 1 teaspoon,
• white wine vinegar – 1 teaspoon,
• egg yolk – 2 pieces,
• salt - to taste.

Cooking method

• Wash the basil. Immerse in boiling water for a quarter of a minute, then place in ice water and drain in a colander.
• Grind the basil leaves, freed from excess moisture, in a blender along with olive oil for a couple of minutes. Transfer the resulting mass into a bowl.
• Beat the yolks, vinegar and mustard in a blender, gradually adding vegetable oil.
• After the mass begins to resemble mayonnaise, add a little water. Mix. The sauce should flow.
• Add basil to the mayonnaise, add a little salt and mix thoroughly. Mayonnaise pesto is ready to eat!

Lemon pesto

You will need:

• basil – 4 bunches,
• peeled pine nuts – 100 grams,
• grated Parmesan cheese – 100 grams,
• garlic – 3 cloves,
• lemon – 1/2 piece,
• olive oil – 4 tablespoons,
• ground black pepper - to taste,
• sea ​​salt - to taste.

Cooking method

• We peel the garlic. Grind.
• Grate the cheese.
• Grind cheese, garlic and pine nuts in a blender.
• Wash the basil. Let's dry it. Chop coarsely. Add to the garlic-cheese-nut mixture and continue whisking.
• Add lemon juice and olive oil. Beat for a couple of minutes.
• Salt and pepper. Mix.
• Transfer the lemon pesto into a bowl and serve. Bon appetit!

Pesto is an Italian dish made from basil, pine nuts, cheese and olive oil..

Nutritious, varied with an aromatic and piquant taste, it has gained fame all over the world. It is prepared differently in different European countries, but it is always green in color due to the various spices and herbs included in its composition.

Wikipedia talks about Pesto as an ancient sauce from Northern Italy, from the city of Genoa. The first mention of it was from a book on gastronomy already in the middle of the 19th century. There are not only territorial varieties, but also an original recipe for Italian sauce.

Homemade sauce - how to prepare?

Real Pesto alla genovese is prepared from Genoese basil, pine nuts or pine pine seeds, hard sheep cheese, extra virgin olive oil. The ingredients are ground in a mortar and mixed. And it is always green.

You can prepare another, red, Pesto, if you use some conditions:

• add fresh tomatoes and remove nuts (seeds);
• take sun-dried tomatoes and almonds, but do without cheese;
• also with fresh tomatoes without peel and seeds and almonds, but without cheese and pine seeds.

There are other cooking options when walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, and peanuts are added instead of pine nuts. And even sunflower seeds have a place in home recipes.

Make a base with purple basil instead of green. It is better to take young sprigs of grass, then the dish will be juicy and rich. It should not be spoiled by overgrown stems.

Mint, arugula, dill, parsley, cilantro and spinach are added as additional seasonings or, in general, made into an oil dressing. But it’s better not to forget about the main component; it is basil that brings a real Italian touch to the sauce, the rest of the herbs will add volume and original taste.

The piquancy can be enhanced with a mixture of peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, and garlic.

Of course, the sauce turns out tasty and aromatic, but still hard Parmesan cheese and good olive oil extra virgin It is recommended to leave them unchanged.

How to prepare Pesto sauce in any of its varieties?

It’s very simple - if you have time, desire and availability of products.

Ingredient ratio based on classic recipe, which should be followed:

Lay out all the products in advance; they should be at room temperature.

Step-by-step preparation:

The true process is slow and long. Of course, you can speed it up by using a blender or meat grinder. Then preparing the butter sauce will take just a few minutes.

Pesto sauce is suitable for any dish. It can be a stand-alone dressing or used in combination with other ingredients.

In addition to the traditional and tasty combination with pasta and pasta, Pesto successfully harmonizes:

In addition, the sauce can be used as a seasoning, added to marinades, pie dough and even to soup.

Homemade dressing can be stored in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container or jar. Implementation time up to two weeks.

Benefits of the sauce

The benefits of the sauce are quite great - it contains so many greens, butter and nuts. Vitamins, minerals, essential and rare micro- and macroelements: phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, copper, manganese, sodium and zinc, phosphorus. So, the sauce contains vitamins E, A, C, PP, B9, B12. All this

• helps stimulate the immune system and enhance immunity;
• improves digestion, has a choleretic effect;
• reduces blood cholesterol levels;
• removes salts of harmful metals and toxins from the body;
• improves the condition of blood vessels and the functioning of the heart muscle;
• strengthens the musculoskeletal system.

Pesto sauce's calorie content depends on the ingredients chosen. Basically, per 100 grams of product it ranges from 454 to 560 kcal.

But if you choose a jar in a store, be sure to look at the composition, expiration date and ingredients, since it may contain a large number of preservatives and completely different calories. And don’t forget about individual food intolerances.

What can they do, these pasta makers: pizza and pasta? Let's object! The Italians can be constantly praised, if only for the fact that they invented the most delicious, and therefore: pesto. This subtle, savory addition will give even the simplest dish a charming Mediterranean twist.

taste and unforgettable aroma.

Pesto traditions

It is absolutely certain that the classic pesto recipe is over 200 years old. The famous sauce of Ligurian cuisine is prepared on the basis of olive oil, basil, pine nuts and hard cheese. Other ingredients may vary, which we will definitely talk about next. But there is one point worth considering if you want to prepare everything according to the rules - according to a long-standing Italian tradition, pesto is prepared using a marble mortar and a wooden pestle - no less. By the way, the verb pestare in Italian means “to trample, grind, crush” (compare with Russian pestle), hence the name “pesto”. But if time is valuable to you, you can use a blender or mixer.

Classics and improvisation

Considered a classic pesto, Pesto alla genovese (Genoese pesto) is made from basil grown in the vicinity of Genoa, salt, pine seeds, garlic, extra virgin Ligurian olive oil and hard sheep cheese. But this, of course, is not the only pesto recipe found in Italy. For example, in Sicily they prepare Pesto alla siciliana - without nuts, but with tomatoes. And in the Bay of Naples area they prefer Pesto alla trapanese - with sun-dried tomatoes and almonds, but without cheese.

Pesto can also be made with walnuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, arugula, spinach, dill or mint... So don't be afraid to deviate from tradition! first spin.

What do you eat it with?

Any pesto goes perfectly with a wide variety of Italian pasta and ravioli. Try! Pesto magically transforms a completely ordinary side dish into a delicious independent dish: you can serve it with steamed rice and vegetable mixtures.

It is also worth baking fish with pesto sauce; for this, Italians most often use cod and salmon - it will turn out very tasty.

Cod with pesto sauce. Make pesto with arugula and purple basil. Take 500 g cod fillet. Lightly grease a baking dish with vegetable oil. Season one side of the fillet with salt and pepper, then place in the pan. Brush the top side with pesto sauce. Place the pan in an oven preheated to 200°C. After 15 minutes the fish is ready.

In pesto sauce, meat chops or turkey. Meat or poultry baked in the oven in foil can easily be the main dish on the holiday table! Grilled lamb will be tender and juicy if you coat it with pesto before cooking. And the dried pork underneath will sparkle with new shades of taste.

As for vegetables, the sauce goes best with eggplant and bell pepper, especially if it is pesto with tomatoes. Another traditional Italian delicacy that requires pesto is a multi-layer vegetable pie, each layer of which is smeared with a magic sauce.

Vegetable pie with pesto. Take classic pesto sauce, 1 red onion, a glass of green peas, 2 carrots, 1 zucchini, 50 g parmesan and 400 g ready-made puff pastry. Cut the zucchini into semicircles, the onion into half rings, and the carrots into circles. Roll out the dough into a layer 3 mm thick. Prick it frequently with a fork. Layer the vegetables, brushing each one with pesto. Sprinkle the top layer with grated cheese and bake in an oven preheated to 190°C for 20 minutes.

Pesto is often used in canapes, sandwiches and sandwich cakes, as well as on pizza with tomatoes, ham and cheese. Risotto with spinach, warm salad with seafood - all this would not be so tasty without pesto. In Italy they even put it in soups!

You can also simply spread pesto on a slice of fresh bread. But before you try, enjoy the spicy aroma coming from such a sandwich, that's part of the fun too!

You are already convinced that there are a huge variety of pesto recipes. Be sure to try them all to choose your favorite.

It is believed that pesto has been known since the times of the Roman Empire, but the first documentary evidence of the preparation of this sauce dates back to 1865.

With its sauce, it even organized a world championship in the preparation of Genoese pesto! It is interesting that amateur cooks take part in this competition along with professional chefs.

In different countries of the world there are tasty, but rather strange analogues of Italian pesto. For example, in French Provence they prepare pistou sauce, which usually does not contain nuts. In Austria they love pesto made from pumpkin seeds, and in Germany they use wild garlic instead of basil.

Italians always include pesto in their wedding menu, because pesto is not only a symbol of a rich table, but also simply a good sign for the newlyweds!

Green pesto

Ingredients

Basil – 60 g



Grated sheep cheese – 2 tbsp. spoons

Garlic – 2 cloves



Olive oil – 100 ml

Salt - to taste

In a blender or using a marble mortar, grind pine nuts (or pine seeds), garlic, and cheese.

Add salt and gradually dilute the resulting mass with cold-pressed olive oil to the consistency of sour cream.

Green pesto is considered classic. It is ideal for all types of pasta, minestrone or risotto. Green pesto best emphasizes the taste of caprese - a classic Italian appetizer made from mozzarella and tomatoes.

Red pesto

Ingredients

Basil – 20 g

Pine seeds or pine nuts - 3 tbsp. spoons

Garlic – 2 cloves

Grated Parmesan – 3 tbsp. spoons

Sun-dried tomatoes – 100 g

Capers – 1 tbsp. spoon

Balsamic vinegar – 1 tbsp. spoon

Olive oil – 100 ml

Salt - to taste

In a blender (at low speed), puree the basil, pine nuts or pine seeds, garlic, cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Add capers and balsamic vinegar. Thin with olive oil to desired consistency.

Red sauce is great not only for pasta, but also for delicate creamy cheeses. It perfectly complements the taste of meat cooked on coals, as well as baked vegetables, especially eggplants.

Yellow pesto

Ingredients

Basil – 20 g

Pine seeds or pine nuts - 3 tbsp. spoons

Chopped walnuts – 1 tbsp. spoon

Garlic – 2 cloves

Grated Parmesan – 3 tbsp. spoons

Ricotta – 150 g

Olive oil – 100 ml

Salt - to taste

Grind basil, pine seeds, walnuts, cheese, ricotta in a blender, add salt and olive oil.

Yellow sauce adds a unique taste to vegetable soups (pumpkin, carrot, sesame and ginger), and is absolutely irreplaceable in the recipe for the famous avocado cream soup.

Purple pesto

Ingredients

Rucola – 100 g

Purple basil – 2 sprigs

Pine nuts – 2 tbsp. spoons

Garlic – 1 clove

Olive oil – 1 tbsp. spoon

Melted butter – 1 tbsp. spoon

Salt - to taste

Grind the arugula, basil and garlic in a blender. With the blender running, pour in the olive oil. Add melted butter, stir and sprinkle with pine nuts.

Purple sauce goes well with fish and seafood. Even ordinary potatoes baked with pesto will become unusual. It is also used in making baked mushrooms with spinach.

Pesto sauce is a famous Italian sauce based on basil, Parmesan and olive oil with the addition of garlic and pine nuts. Pesto is one of the oldest sauces on the planet, its authorship is attributed to the Persians. This ancient but eternally young sauce is still prepared using the old culinary “tools” - a mortar and pestle, and no food processor can give the same result. Modern pesto is made from green basil leaves, the best quality olive oil and hard Parmesan cheese, called Parmigiano Reggiano in Italy.

Pesto got its name from the Italian pestato, pestare - to trample, grind, crush. That is, the name of the sauce is based on the method of preparation. This is worth remembering, since there is no other way to achieve a resemblance to the famous, but simple in cooking sauce that will be served to you in any eatery in Italy. Pesto comes not only green, but also red (with the addition of sun-dried tomatoes). This sauce is used primarily for pasta or lasagna, but in Italy it can often be added to soups, spread on bread or toast, and can be used in other unusual ways.

Pesto sauce is believed to originate from the Liguria region of northern Italy, as well as Genoa, and has been known since Roman times. There is evidence that Genoese sailors took this sauce on long voyages, as it was stored much better than fresh herbs. In any port it was very easy to identify a sailor from Genoa: by the bright smell of basil.

Some are inclined to believe that pesto sauce or something similar to it was prepared before the formation of the Roman Empire. Basil was not always its basis; ancient recipes with parsley or cilantro are known. One way or another, the first written mention of pesto occurs only in 1865 in the book “Cooks of Genoa” by Giovanni Battista Ratto.

The main component of modern pesto is basil. Basil was first cultivated in India, from where, according to some sources, this aromatic plant came to North Africa, and then to the territory of modern Italy. It should be clarified that the purple basil familiar to Russia is characteristic of the Caucasus and the Balkans. This is not a good choice for pesto. In Italy, basil with green leaves is mainly used. Basil has gained particular popularity in Northern Italy, the Liguria region and southern French Provence. By the way, in Provence, a sauce similar to pesto is prepared with parsley and a lot of different types of cheese, but without nuts.

Classic pesto recipe

Ingredients:

Young basil leaves from the Pra region
. extra virgin olive oil from Liguria
. Italian pine nuts (pine seeds)
. Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padana cheese
. sheep pecorino cheese Fiore Sardo
. dried garlic from the Vessaliko region
. coarse sea salt

Preparation:

Gently rinse and dry the basil leaves, being careful not to damage them to prevent oxidation and blackening. Take a marble mortar with a wooden pestle, crush a couple of clove buds, fresh or dried garlic with sea salt. Add the basil leaves and begin to gently grind the leaves until they turn into a paste. Add grated cheese on the finest grater to the well-grated mass, mix thoroughly and add olive oil. Pesto should be neither thick nor thin. Add ingredients based on your taste.

This pesto recipe requires some explanation. In Italian cookbooks you will not find exact proportions, only important notes, such as which province the basil should be taken from or which types of cheese are especially good. This is easy to explain: in Italy, every chef prepares his own pesto, and this is one of the advantages of Italian cuisine, its secret and carefully guarded tradition. Following it, you need to try to imagine the end result and select the ratios of products based on your own experience and taste. Moreover, not a single Italian chef would dare to weigh basil leaves or measure the amount of olive oil. Everything is done on a whim, with constant testing.

Of course, it is quite difficult for us to follow the original recipe, and we cannot avoid substitutions. What can be replaced and with what, and what should become inviolable?
. Green basil. Purple is not suitable; it can give an unattractive dark color and an overly bright aroma. Basil from the Pra region of Italy has lemony aroma and flavor. It is known in the markets as lemon or mint basil. In Italy, sometimes a little mint is added to regular green basil if Pra basil cannot be found.
. Parmesan. Let it be any of the European copies, but there should not be any Russian, Suluguni or sour cream cheeses in the pesto!
. Olive oil. Only better. Try it on your tongue; if it tastes bitter and leaves a “nail in the throat,” as the Italians say, then it’s not suitable for pesto. The oil we need should be fragrant, silky and leave a pleasant sensation on the tongue and throat.
. Pine nuts. This refers to Italian pine seeds, which are 3-4 times larger than our pine nuts. You can use regular Siberian pine nuts if you can’t get Italian ones. It is known for certain that pine grows in the Crimea and the Caucasus. Do not substitute walnuts, they may cause bitterness. Some people like their cashews unroasted, so experiment.
. Sheep cheese. Even in some places in Italy it is not always used for pesto, so it can be excluded. But if you still find Fiore Sardo cheese, then add about 1/3 of the volume of Parmesan.
. Garlic. It’s difficult to say why garlic from Vessaliko is better than garlic from Ryazan. Most likely, the differences can even emphasize the individuality of Russian pesto.
. Sea salt. You need coarse salt. This is the whole idea: it is the salt that grinds the leaves, and the larger it is, the easier and faster it is to prepare the sauce. In addition, sea salt is richer in minerals and should be in every kitchen.

In Italy, mint is often added to pesto. Sometimes coriander seeds or leaves (cilantro), olives, lemon zest and even mushrooms are added.

As you can imagine, there are many sauces with similar preparation methods and overlapping ingredients. The most striking example is the Provençal version of pesto called pistou or pistou. In addition to basil, the French sauce contains parsley, garlic, olive oil and several types of cheese. Instead of pine nuts, grated almonds are sometimes added to pistou, but more often the sauce is prepared without nuts at all. Typically, French pistou is used as a seasoning for summer soup. There is no strict recipe for a special soup for pistou; the main condition is fresh summer vegetables: green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, new potatoes. Pistou sauce is added to the finished soup when serving or served separately so that everyone can add it to the soup to taste. In Italy they also eat soup with pesto and call it minestrone al pesto

In the USA, sun-dried tomatoes and hot peppers are added to pesto. In many countries, walnuts are added instead of pine nuts. This is especially true in Latin and North America, the Caucasus, and Russia. A similar cooking principle is used in Georgian sauces bazhe and satsivi; In the same way, the ingredients for adjika are ground in a mortar.

A legitimate question arises: why still use outdated mortars when there are so many electrical appliances? Each dish has its own cooking technique, and it would be good to adhere to it if you need to get a predictably correct result. Almost all ancient sauces, which were traditionally prepared by grinding ingredients in stone or wooden mortars, cannot be replicated using modern kitchen appliances such as blenders. The blender quickly grinds the tender leaves, which stick to the walls, and as a result, instead of homogeneity, a large contrast is obtained between scraps of uncrushed parts and a homogeneous pulp. Add to this the painful cleaning of knives from wound plant tissues and the inevitable oxidation and darkening of the sauce due to contact with metal. It’s even faster to prepare pesto in a mortar than in a blender, while the color remains rich green, the cooking process is conscious, it’s easy to control and adjust the composition along the way.

The most interesting thing is what to serve with pesto sauce. Adepts of Italian cuisine recommend pesto exclusively for pasta. In fact, in Italy pesto is only served with certain types of pasta. It is used in soups and salads made with fresh vegetables and herbs. Pesto goes especially well with rocket salad and tomatoes. There are many recipes for pesto pizza. In this case, the sauce is used as a base sauce, which is used to brush the dough before placing the ingredients. Pesto keeps well in the refrigerator. Select a transparent container, sterilize it and transfer the excess pesto into a cooled jar. It is unlikely that it will stay in the refrigerator for a long time, but still do not store it for too long and check for mold if the pesto still stagnates.

Pesto loves experiments. Try this sauce with rice, rice noodles, boiled potatoes, add to vegetable salads, and use to flavor soups and other sauces. Pesto goes well with meat. You can serve it with chicken or duck. Pesto sauce can be added to an omelette or quiche, to a closed vegetable or meat pie, to homemade bread or pies. Practice moderation and trust your taste.