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 with the help of ancient culinary "instruments" - a mortar and pestle, and no food processor can give the same result. Modern pesto is made from green basil leaves, olive oil itself. best quality and hard parmesan, called in Italy Parmeggiano Reggiano.
Pesto got its name from the Italian pestato, pestare - to stomp, rub, crush. That is, the method of preparation formed the basis of the name of the sauce. This is worth remembering, because in no other way can you achieve similarity with the famous, but easy to use. 
cooking sauce, which will be served to you in any eatery in Italy. Pesto is not only green, but also red (with the addition of sun-dried tomatoes). This sauce is used mainly for pasta or lasagne, but in Italy it can often be added to soups, spread on bread or toast, and generally used in an unusual way.
It is believed that pesto originates from the region of Liguria, in northern Italy, as well as from Genoa, and has been known since the time of the Roman Empire. There is evidence that the 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 people tend to believe that pesto or something similar to it was made 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 is found only in 1865 in the book by Giovanni Battista Ratto "Chefs of Genoa".
The main component of modern pesto is basil. For the first time, basil began to be cultivated in India, from where, according to some sources, this fragrant plant came to North Africa, and then to the territory of modern Italy. It should be clarified that purple basil, which is familiar to Russia, is characteristic of the Caucasus and the Balkans. Is not the best choice for pesto. In Italy, mainly green-leaved basil is used. Basil gained particular popularity in northern Italy, in the Liguria region and in southern French Provence. By the way, in Provence, a sauce similar to pesto is prepared with parsley and a lot of cheese. different varieties but no nuts.
classic pesto recipe 
Ingredients:
Young basil leaves from Pra region
. olive oil direct pressing from Liguria
. Italian pine nuts (pinia seeds)
. Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padana cheese
. sheep's pecorino cheese Fiore Sardo
. dried garlic from Vessaliko
. coarse sea salt
Cooking:
Rinse and dry the basil leaves carefully, 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 start gently rubbing the leaves until they turn into a mush. In a well-ground mass, add grated cheese on the smallest grater, mix thoroughly and add olive oil. The pesto should be neither thick nor runny. Add ingredients according to your taste.
This pesto recipe needs some explanation. In Italian cookbooks you will not find exact proportions, only important notes, such as which province to take the basil from, or which types of cheese are especially good. It's easy to explain: in Italy, every chef makes his own pesto, and this is one of the virtues. Italian cuisine, its secret and carefully guarded tradition. Following it, you need to try to imagine the end result and select the ratio of products based on your own experience and taste. What's more, no Italian chef would risk weighing basil leaves or measuring out olive oil. Everything is done on a whim, with constant trials.
Of course it's pretty hard for us to follow original recipe, and substitutions cannot be avoided. What can be replaced and with what, and what should become inviolable?
. green basil. Violet is not suitable, it can give an ugly dark color and an overly bright aroma. Basil from the Italian region of Pra has lemony undertones in aroma and taste. In the markets, it is known as lemon or mint basil. In Italy, sometimes a little mint is added to the usual green basil if the basil from Pra cannot be found.
. Parmesan. Let it be any of the European copies, but there should not be any Russian, suluguni and sour cream cheeses in pesto!
. Olive oil. Only better. Try it on your tongue, if it is bitter and leaves a “nail in your throat”, as the Italians say, then it will not work 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 the seeds of Italian pine, which are 3-4 times larger than ours. pine nuts. You can take ordinary Siberian pine nuts if it doesn’t work with Italian ones. It is known for certain that pine grows in the Crimea and the Caucasus. Do not substitute walnuts, they can be bitter. Some people like unroasted cashews, experiment. 
. Sheep cheese. Even in some parts of 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 is difficult to say than the garlic from Vessaliko 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 minerals It should be in every kitchen.
Often in Italy, mint is 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 cooking methods and overlapping ingredients. The most striking example is the Provencal 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 the pistà, but more often the sauce is prepared without nuts at all. Typically French Pisto is used as a dressing for summer soup. There is no strict recipe for a special soup for Pisto, the main condition is fresh summer vegetables: green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, new potatoes. Pistu sauce is added to ready soup when serving or served separately, so that everyone adds it to the soup to taste. In Italy they also eat pesto soup and call it minestrone al pesto.
In the United States, sun-dried tomatoes are added to pesto and hot peppers. In many countries, walnuts are added instead of pine nuts. This is especially true in Latin and North America, in the Caucasus, and in Russia. A similar cooking principle is used in Georgian sauces bage and satsivi; ingredients for adjika are similarly ground in a mortar.
A legitimate question arises: why still use obsolete 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 that were traditionally prepared by grinding ingredients in stone or wooden mortars cannot be replicated with modern kitchen appliances like blenders. The blender quickly grinds tender leaves that stick to the walls, and as a result, instead of uniformity, a great contrast is obtained between lumps of unground parts and a homogeneous gruel. 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. In a mortar, making pesto is even faster than in a blender, while the color remains saturated green, the cooking process is conscious, it is easy to control and correct the composition in the process.
The most interesting thing is what to serve the pesto sauce with. 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 from fresh vegetables and herbs. Pesto goes especially well with rocket salad (arugula) 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 laying the ingredients. Pesto keeps well in the refrigerator. Pick up a transparent container, sterilize it and put the excess pesto into a cooled jar. It won't last long in the fridge, but don't store too long and check for mold if the pesto gets stale.
Pesto loves to experiment. Try this rice sauce rice noodles, boiled potatoes, add to vegetable salads, 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 omelet or quiche, to a closed vegetable or meat pie, in homebaked bread or pies. Practice moderation and trust your taste.
Salads with pesto sauce occupy a separate niche in the culinary arts. They are healthy, tasty and hearty meals, which can be prepared not only for festive table but also on a normal day - for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Most of them are perfect for a light snack, and some can even replace a full meal.
Preparing the Pesto Base
Before choosing any salad, you need to prepare a pesto consisting of the following ingredients:
- 50 g each of fresh basil leaves and Parmesan cheese;
- pine nuts - 2 tablespoons;
- garlic - 2 cloves;
- salt - to taste;
- olive oil - 50 ml.
Salads with pesto sauce will have a brighter taste if the list of these products is not modified. This is traditional recipe cooking dressing, which appeared in Italy, in Genoa. The addition of other ingredients can destroy the harmony and balance that is inherent in the sauce prepared according to the original recipe.
So, first you need to wash and dry the basil leaves, then cut the cheese into small pieces, peel and cut the garlic in half. Put all this in a blender, add nuts, a little salt and oil, and then chop. You do not need to keep the blender turned on for a long time, wanting to get the most crushed products. On the contrary, the sauce should be heterogeneous.
Caprese salad with pesto sauce
"Caprese" is a very tasty and easy-to-cook Italian salad, perhaps known all over the world. It is also called the “perfect trio”, because the dish combines tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, and together these products form an unsurpassed taste. To make Caprese classic recipe you need to prepare:
- 6 tomatoes;
- 250 g mozzarella;
- 20 g basil;
- 3 tablespoons of pesto sauce.
The peculiarity of this salad with pesto, mozzarella and tomatoes is that the last 2 ingredients must be cut into slices, the thickness of which will be approximately 7 mm. For everything to work out, you need to take hard tomatoes. Soft varieties simply spread on the plate when cutting. Mozzarella cheese, which is sold in "balls", is first cut across, and then in half, in even parts. Basil leaves should be washed and dried.
You will need a flat dish to serve. Slices of tomatoes and cheese are laid out on it, alternating them with each other. In this case, the next product leans on clearly visible in the photo of the salad). Top the salad with pesto sauce and decorate the center with basil leaves.
Warm potato salad with pesto
This mediterranean-style appetizer is very tasty and satisfying. Warm potato salad with pesto sauce can play the role of an independent dish or side dish. Prepared from the following products:
- 6 quail eggs;
- 400 g potatoes;
- 3 tablespoons green canned peas;
- spices - to taste.
Boil potatoes in their skins, peel and cut into 2 parts. This must be done until it cools down so that the salad is warm. Put the potato halves in a bowl, add the peas, then a couple of tablespoons of pesto, spices if desired, and mix well. When the salad is on serving plates, put boiled quail eggs, cut in half, and decorate the dish with a sprig of basil.
Salad with tuna and Adyghe cheese with sauce
This dish also turns out to be unusual and incredibly tasty. This pesto salad recipe, like Caprese, is good because it is quick and fairly easy to prepare. This requires the following products:
- 1 tablespoon of pesto sauce;
- 150 g of Adyghe cheese;
- 250 g cherry;
- 1 bank canned tuna in own juice;
- spices and garlic - to taste.
You need to drain the liquid from the can of tuna, put the fish in a bowl, then add seasonings, garlic and sauce, mix everything well. Adyghe cheese cut into cubes, put in a salad bowl. Mix gently. Cut the tomatoes in half, put in a bowl. Mix the salad as carefully as possible so as not to crush the cherry.
Salads with pesto sauce are not the only dish prepared with such an interesting dressing. We offer you to watch a video recipe that tells how to cook chicken fillet with pesto sauce, cherry tomatoes and mozzarella. The end result is very tasty. full meal, which is perfect for dinner with the family, and for meeting guests.
What is Italian pesto sauce famous for? Basic ingredients, pesto recipe (photo). The right basil for pesto. Classic sauce in Liguria.
"Рesto alla genovese" - this is how the famous pesto sauce sounds in Italian, which means pesto in Genoese. as popular all over the world as pesto sauce is inseparable from spaghetti or Minestrone soup, which are traditionally served together. The name "pesto" alone carries a charm.
We will learn how to choose the right basil for sauce and how to make pesto at home
Origin of "pesto"
Pesto comes from Liguria and its main city, Genoa. The main treasure of this unique sauce is basil leaves. The peculiarity of this spicy herb is that the true italian basil should be grown under the sun in the Pra area, the western neighborhood of Genoa, near the Mediterranean Sea.
The right basil for the sauce
They say that the natives of Genoa are kind to the cultivation of basil and the preparation of this sauce. Some don't even try pesto unless the basil leaves have been basking in the sun around Pra.
This is explained by the fact that a light bitterness and a delicate fibrous texture should be felt in the basil. Leaves no larger than 4-5 centimeters should be plucked, as mature leaves can add excessive bitterness to the sauce. As is customary in, dishes, like sauce, are created only from fresh seasonal products.
Composition of pesto sauce
Classic pesto ingredients
The pesto contains basil, pine nuts, cheese, garlic and olive oil. Traditionally, the preparation of the sauce begins with washing, drying on a towel and rubbing the basil. Adherents of the old kitchen prefer the mortar and pestle as tools for creating a creamy consistency.
Patience and work - that's what you need for a beginner. The pestle, unlike the combine, helps to highlight the essential oils - the aroma without which the true sauce will not be called pesto sauce!
If you do not plan to use the sauce immediately after cooking, then be sure to place it in a container and cover tightly with a lid.
When the grass begins to sap, it's time to add the pine nuts and salt. Salt is used only coarse. Then comes the turn of garlic, pecarino cheese and a little olive oil. Keep in mind that the balance between bitterness and sweetness can be adjusted by adding pine nuts.
The olives must also come from the area. Olive oil is chosen taking into account the characteristics of the variety: moderately spicy and preferably with low acidity - ideal for pesto. Next comes the cheese. Pecarino is the generic name for a product made from pure sheep milk so popular in Italy.
As slightly less expensive ingredients you can use cashew nuts or walnuts- instead of cedar. Can parmesan be substituted for pecorino cheese? or grana padano.
How to make pesto at home
Learn how to make pesto at home!
The modern version of pesto is simplified. And cooks, of course, do not use a pestle and mortar, but a food processor - a blender. All the salt in the creation of this unique sauce lies in the proportions of the products taken, and here the professionalism of the author of the culinary product plays a decisive role.
To learn how to determine the necessary ratio of ingredients by eye, do not be afraid, but try to create your own unique pesto at home today!
The final stage
At the final stage, the sauce is decorated with basil leaves and olives. If you do not plan to use the sauce immediately after preparation, then be sure to place it in a container and cover it tightly to prevent it from quickly oxidizing in air. In an airtight container, pesto sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Tortellini with pesto. But you will be surprised how well this sauce goes well with your favorite dumplings!
Whatever attracts us in Italian cuisine, pesto will take its rightful place in kitchen cooking next to any dish. And its aroma will conquer not only a gourmet, but also a mere mortal!
It is hardly possible to find at least one gourmet - a lover of Italian cuisine, who is not familiar with the famous pesto sauce. Born in Liguria, the fresh, fragrant pesto sauce has gained wide popularity far beyond the Mediterranean. A worthy representative of Italian cuisine, famous for dishes from simple, but fresh and quality products, prepared with a minimum of effort, pesto has not only a classic version, but also many quite traditional variations.
pesto sauce recipe
History of pesto
The origin of pesto sauce is shrouded in mystery, but culinary historians agree that the origins of this specialty are most likely to be found in Persia or the Arabian Peninsula. Perhaps the "progenitor" of pesto was a sauce made from walnuts, known as "salsa di nights". The first mention of pesto is considered to be a description of garlic sauce and herbs, given by Salvatore Massonio, a 17th-century Italian physician and historian, in one of his essays. The first recipe for pesto was published several centuries later in the famous Culinary of Genoa (La Cuciniera Genovese). The very name of the sauce comes from the Italian word pestare - grind, crush - and is related to original way its preparation. Traditionally, pesto is ground in a circular motion with a wooden or marble pestle in the same mortar. Ligurians are proud of "their" sauce and even legally protect the traditional recipe for pesto genovese.
Genovese is the traditional name for everything that comes from Genoa. The famous Genovese pesto literally translates to Genoese pesto.
Genoese pesto ingredients
To make the famous classic sauce pesto, you will need: - 100 g of fresh basil leaves; - 30 g of pine nuts; - 60 g of grated parmesan; - 2 cloves of garlic; - 10 g sea salt: - 80 ml olive oil. From the indicated amount of products, 300 g of pesto will be obtained.
A brief description of the ingredients does not convey the fullness of the requirements for traditional Genoese pesto. So, the basil must be a special variety grown in the vicinity of Genoa. Basil genovese is one of the PDO protected foods. It has a strong but mild taste with distinct mint tones. Olive oil is also needed local, Ligurian. Taggiasco oil has a special, sweet fruity taste. Pine nuts must be brought from Sicily. The only liberties that Ligurians allow is the choice of cheese. Parmesano reggiano and grana padano will do, as well as pecorino sardo or pecorino romano.
PDO (Protected Designation of Origin - protected designation of origin) - a legally approved mark placed on products grown and processed only within a strictly designated area
Genovese pesto recipe
To make traditional pesto, you will need a marble or wooden mortar and pestle. Wash basil leaves in cold water and dry them on paper kitchen towels, blotting them but not wiping them. In a mortar and mortar, rub the basil leaves, peeled garlic cloves and pine nuts in a circular motion, add salt and grated cheese. When the mass becomes viscous, start pouring in olive oil little by little. Blend until smooth and uniform. cream sauce. All the oil should soak into the sauce, not float on the surface.
Sicilian Pesto
Sicilian Pesto, also called pesto siciliano, red pesto, or pesto rosso, is a sauce made using the same technology, but with sun-dried tomatoes, almonds instead of pine nuts, and much less basil. Also, olives are sometimes put in pesto rosso and thyme leaves are replaced with basil. Take: - 100 g of sun-dried tomatoes, canned in oil; - 50 g of pitted olives; - 30 g of pine nuts; - 30 g grated cheese Parmesan; - 2 cloves of garlic; - 1 tablespoon of thyme leaves; - 150 ml of olive oil.
Due to the tougher texture of tomatoes, you can make this sauce in a blender. Drain excess oil from canned tomatoes, put them in a blender bowl. Roast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan and let them cool, put them on top of the tomatoes. Add cheese, thyme, garlic and pulse everything. Add olive oil drop by drop while continuing to mix. Store the prepared sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
