Pesto Genovese
Basil pounded rather than cut, with nothing cooked and nothing heated.
Not vegetarian — contains parmesan whose rennet the source does not name, pecorino whose rennet the source does not name.
Ingredients
- 70 g young basil leaves, small ones
- 30 g pine nuts
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled
- 60 g parmesan, grated
- 30 g pecorino sardo, grated
- 120 ml mild extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
Method
- Use young small leaves. Large late-season basil is aggressively minty and no technique will take that out.
- Wash and dry them completely. Water left on the leaves makes the sauce separate.
- POUND, DO NOT CUT. Start with the garlic and coarse salt in a mortar, grind to a paste, add the pine nuts, then the basil a few leaves at a time, pressing and turning against the sides rather than hammering.
- A BLADE IS THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SPEED. Chopping ruptures the cells cleanly and the cut edges oxidise to black-green within minutes; crushing bursts them and releases the oil. If you must use a processor, freeze the bowl, pulse in bursts, and accept a duller sauce.
- Work in both cheeses, then the oil in a slow thread, stirring with the pestle in one direction.
- NOTHING IS COOKED AND NOTHING IS WARMED at any point. Pesto put in a hot pan turns khaki and bitter.
- To dress pasta, loosen the pesto in a warmed bowl with a ladle of pasta water first, then add the drained pasta to the bowl — never the pesto to the pan.
Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.
Filed under Italy · All recipes