Creamy Genovese homemade pesto sauce

This creamy pesto sauce only requires a few ingredients and it is incredibly versatile. Made in advance can be a life savious, a delicious and nutritious one too.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 0

Total Time 15

Servings servings

Calories 117kcal

Author Ramona Sebastian

Cost £6

Equipment

food processor
chopping board
spatula

Ingredients

100 g fresh basil leaves and stalks
35 g pine nuts *
40 g Parmigiano Reggiano cheese freshly grated
35 g Grana Padano freshly grated
1 tablespoon sea salt or pink Himalayan
3 tablespoon olive oil good quality extra virgin
2 cloves garlic
½ lemon lemon juice just the juice

Metric - US Imperial

Instructions

Wash thoroughly the basil leaves using only very cold water.
Add the basil leaves and stalks to the mortar - use half if your mortar is smaller. Very gently, pretty carefully and quite slowly, crush the basil leaves for 3 minutes (1 min if using a food processor).
Once the leaves are crushed, add the slightly crushed and chopped garlic, the pine nuts (or other nuts if you decide using different ones), salt, and the cheeses. Crush these using circular movements or whizz for another minute or so until it becomes a smooth creamy paste.
While pounding using a light circular movement of the pestle or while whizzing add the olive oil which should be a good quality Extra Virgin Olive one.
The source is now ready to use so enjoy it.

Notes

Creamy Genovese homemade pesto sauce_pesto_sauce

Pine nuts:

- Sicilian pine nuts are one of the best if you could find as well as Californian - if you do not have those pine nuts that are also quite pricey, try any other nuts such as walnuts, macadamia, almond.

- as cheese, only use a nice matured Parmigiana Reggiano or a Grana Padano (ideally a mix of those) and no other cheeses like a Pecorino or other cheeses if you want to keep that authentic taste.

- I was saying that the best way to make this sauce to try and not compromise the flavour, is by using a mortar with a wooden pestle but of course an electric food processor or a blender would also do the job.

It's the metal blade that spoils things a little but hey, I do understand we don't always find the time to do things the traditional way. It’s more time as well as more effort but for t his it is worth a try and worth the effort.

- Try and prepare this as fast as you can to avoid oxidation.

- If you’re not using it all at once and want to keep some for later, place the remaining sauce in an airtight jar and keep in the fridge for a maximum of two weeks.

Try this quinoa pesto salad or this beautiful chicken roast pasta sauce.

Thank you for stopping by!

Nutrition