The Recipe: Basil Pesto

 

 

 

 

"Pesto is the way a person makes pesto." ¹

 

Basil. It is relatively easy to grow and, unless over-watered or exposed to the cold, basil can thrive outdoors in a garden during the summer months or indoors in a pot year-round. Most people can identify basil by it's distinct taste and smell. Few other herbs play so well with others that they can turn up in both sweets and savories, soups and salads and with pasta, fish and fowl—and neither steal the show nor fade into the background.²

For Italian-Americans like myself, how we consume basil is determined in part by where our family originates in Italy. Naples - basil on pizza or in marinara sauce. Capri - basil in a salad with tomatoes and mozzarella. Liguria - basil in pesto.

Where did pesto come from?

 

Pesto's origins most likely intersect with the many pesto-like sauces found throughout the Mediterranean and beyond: After all, the mortar and pestle is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous cooking tools. The ancient Romans loved their pounded sauces of lovage, parsley, mint, and thyme, and many books about pesto say that it's descended from an old Persian sauce that's made with walnuts and thyme. The Greeks invented skordalia from ground garlic and nuts, and the Spanish have their romesco based on pureeacutees of almonds, garlic, red peppers, and olive oil. ¹

 

Pesto is not the Sunday afternoon staple in my Neapolitan family. The word is borderline blasphemous. Its marinara sauce or marinara sauce or, wait for it, marinara sauce. Every once in a while there is a Bolognese sauce, but you can tell it is really marinara sauce with crushed meatballs. Let them eat marinara! They're missing out.

More than just an accompaniment to pasta or gnocchi, pesto can be served with a number of dishes ranging from minestrone soup to char-broiled steak. Its fresh, clean flavors are a versatile companion to almost any dish you prepare.

There is something to be said about using a mortar and pestle to make the sauce as well. There is an earnestness to the process. It adds a familiarity, a sense that others have done this before and that you too are now a part of that history.

Pesto is about more than the fresh basil taste, pesto is about more than the foods you serve it with, pesto is about the way a person makes pesto.

 
 

 

Recipe
 

   

· 1½ cups of basil

· ½ a clove of garlic

· 2 tablespoons of walnuts

· 1½ tablespoons of grated pecorino romano cheese

· ¼ of lemon

· 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

· ½ teaspoon of sea salt

 

NOTE: This pesto is an amalgamation of numerous recipes I have prepared over the years.The primary inspirations are: Jamie Oliver's and La Cucina Italiana's recipes. I prefer more basil flavor than cheese flavor as well as a thicker sauce to a thinner one. The recipe below reflects that preference.

 

1 Heat pan over medium-low heat until hot. Add pine nuts to heated pan. Toast for 4 minutes, moving occasionally, until pine nuts are lightly browned. Remove walnuts from pan and set aside to cool. Turn off heat.

2 Roughly chop basil and garlic. Add to mortar and pestle with cooled pine nuts and sea salt. Grind thoroughly in circular motion until mixture has pasty consistency. Add cheese and grind into basil paste until combined.

3 Transfer contents of mortar to mixing bowl. Add extra virgin olive oil and whisk together. Squeeze lemon over pesto.

1 Saveur Magazine | Glorious Pesto

2 WSJ | Cooking With Basil and Its Many Friends