Pesto Sauce: An Italian Origin Sauce

Pesto is actually called an Italian sauce. Its origin is from Italy, however it was later believed to have been imported from African region. Its basic constituents are basil, salt, garlic, nuts, olive oil, cheese etc. The pesto’s which are used for commercial purpose do contain walnuts or cashews as they are a bit cheaper. This sauce can be used for meat or pasta, or over toasted bread.

It can be easily made at home that too from scratch and then can be stored in a covered container in the fridge for almost a month. In order to prevent pesto sauce from discoloration a thin layer of olive oil can be poured over its top. 

The pesto sauce has always been among my family’s favorites from quite some years now. The various dishes which can be made with it are pasta with pesto, pesto on pizza and many more.

Lets Cook Pesto sauce.

Prep Time: 10 min                                 

Total Time: 10 min                                         

Servings: about 1/2 cup

Ingredients:

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons pine nuts
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 dash salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

How To Prepare it:

1. Peel and chop garlic first. From basil leaves remove stems then wash and dry it.
2. The old-style of making pesto is the mortar and pestle one. In this method basil, garlic, salt, and pine nuts are added to the mortar and then turned to a paste. Then cheese is added to it and oil is whisked in till it gives the desired consistency.
3. These days nobody adopts the traditional way as it consumes much of time and energy. So I prefer to use my food processor, and to turn the mixture into puree in just minutes. However if food processor is not available a blender can be used.
4. After peeling off the garlic it can be added to the food processor. Now add pine nuts, basil leaves and a dash of salt and pepper to the processor bowl. Once the processor is running, slowly start to add the olive oil to it so that all ingredients are turned to a puree.
5. At some point you may need to put the processor off so as to scrape down its sides with a rubber spatula.
6. Now add Parmesan cheese to the rest of the mixture and mix it properly. If you think your pesto sauce looks too thick then some water can be added to it as desired.
7. This sauce now should be covered and then kept in the refrigerator till the time it is ready to be used. This should be kept in fridge for almost 1 - 2 days and is then ready to be used. Don’t allow it to freeze.

Hopefully you may find this pesto sauce recipe quite simple to make. However, this flavorful recipe does not take too much preparation time.