Italian cuisine is famous for its sauces. However, you don’t have to go to Italy or a European restaurant to enjoy the wonderful taste of pesto sauce. Anyone can make this sauce on their own.

It is believed that pesto sauce first appeared in the Roman Empire, however, the first documentary evidence mentioning the preparation of this sauce dates back to the mid-19th century. The sauce is most often served with pasta, used when cooking soups, and some even spread it on bread and crackers. There are many variations of pesto, but there are 3 ingredients found in every recipe– this is basil and cheese. Traditionally, the color of the sauce is green, but if you add sun-dried tomatoes during cooking, it will turn red.

Pesto sauce. Classic recipe

You will need:

• basil – 1 bunch,
• garlic – 1 clove,
• pine nuts – 40 grams,
• Parmesan cheese – 50 grams,
• salt - to taste,
• olive oil – 7 teaspoons.

Cooking method

• Wash the basil. Let's dry it. We cut it coarsely.
• We clean the pine nuts from their shells.
• Grate the cheese.
• Mix all ingredients, add olive oil.
• Grind in a mortar.
• If necessary, add a little salt. Mix. The sauce is ready!

The classic method of preparing pesto sauce involves grinding the ingredients in a mortar, but to save time and effort, you can mix the ingredients in a blender. It is this method that is currently used not only by housewives, but even by chefs of Italian restaurants.

Parsley and cilantro pesto

You will need:

• cilantro – 2/3 bunch,
• parsley – 1/3 bunch,
• parmesan – 50 grams (can be replaced with any hard cheese),
• pine nuts – 30 grams (if necessary, you can use pistachios or cashews instead),
• olive oil – 100 ml,
• salt - to taste.

Cooking method

• Rinse the greens. Let's dry it. Separate the leaves from the stems. Chop coarsely.
• We peel the garlic. Cut into slices.
• Grate the cheese.
• Place some of the greens, cheese, nuts and garlic in a blender.
• Add a little olive oil.
• Grind the ingredients, gradually adding the remaining herbs and oil to the mass. It is not at all necessary to grind the sauce until smooth; just combine and chop the ingredients a little. Ready!

Arugula pesto

You will need:

• arugula – 2 bunches,
• peeled green pistachios – 1/3 cup,
• olive oil – 1/4 cup,
• Asiago cheese – 50 grams,
• lemon zest - 2 teaspoons,
• lemon juice – 1 tablespoon,
• salt - to taste.

Cooking method

• Wash the arugula. Let's dry it.
• Grate the cheese on a fine grater.
• We peel the garlic. Grind in a blender.
• Add cheese and pistachios. Grind.
• Add arugula leaves and lemon zest.
• Add lemon juice. Grind to a paste.
• Continuously whisking, add olive oil to the sauce.
• Salt and pepper. If necessary, add a little more lemon juice. Mix thoroughly. We put the sauce in a cool place, after a couple of hours it is ready to eat.

Sun-dried tomato and walnut pesto

You will need:

• basil – 1 bunch,
• sun-dried tomatoes – 6 pieces,
• garlic – 1 clove,
• Parmesan cheese – 50 grams,
• chopped walnuts – 1/3 cup,
• olive oil – 1/3 cup,
• water – 2 tablespoons,
• sea ​​salt – 1/2 teaspoon,
• freshly ground black pepper – 1/4 teaspoon.

Cooking method

• We peel the garlic. Finely chop.
• Wash the basil. Let's dry it. Separate the leaves from the stems.
• Grate the cheese.
• We cut the sun-dried tomatoes.
• Place everything listed in the food processor bowl.
• Add water.
• Salt and pepper.
• Grind until smooth, gradually adding olive oil. As soon as the pesto acquires the consistency of a thick paste, turn off the blender, transfer the sauce to a glass jar and we can take a sample.

Asparagus and pistachio pesto

You will need:

• green asparagus – 200 grams,
• fresh spinach leaves – 100 grams,
• Parmesan cheese – 50 grams,
• garlic – 1 clove,
• olive oil – 3 tablespoons,
• peeled pistachios - 2 tablespoons,
• lemon juice - to taste,
• salt - to taste.

Cooking method

• Boil asparagus in boiling water. We rinse. Cut into small pieces.
• Wash the spinach. Let's dry it. We chop.
• We peel the garlic.
• Grate the cheese.
• Combine the prepared ingredients in a blender, adding olive oil and lemon juice.
• Salt and grind until smooth. Italian sauce is ready!

Mayonnaise pesto

You will need:

• basil – 1/2 bunch,
• vegetable oil – 2 cups,
• olive oil – 2 tablespoons,
• mustard – 1 teaspoon,
• white wine vinegar – 1 teaspoon,
• egg yolk – 2 pieces,
• salt - to taste.

Cooking method

• Wash the basil. Immerse in boiling water for a quarter of a minute, then place in ice water and drain in a colander.
• Grind the basil leaves, freed from excess moisture, in a blender along with olive oil for a couple of minutes. Transfer the resulting mass into a bowl.
• Beat the yolks, vinegar and mustard in a blender, gradually adding vegetable oil.
• After the mass begins to resemble mayonnaise, add a little water. Mix. The sauce should flow.
• Add basil to the mayonnaise, add a little salt and mix thoroughly. Mayonnaise pesto is ready to eat!

Lemon pesto

You will need:

• basil – 4 bunches,
• peeled pine nuts – 100 grams,
• grated Parmesan cheese – 100 grams,
• garlic – 3 cloves,
• lemon – 1/2 piece,
• olive oil – 4 tablespoons,
• ground black pepper - to taste,
• sea ​​salt - to taste.

Cooking method

• We peel the garlic. Grind.
• Grate the cheese.
• Grind cheese, garlic and pine nuts in a blender.
• Wash the basil. Let's dry it. Chop coarsely. Add to the garlic-cheese-nut mixture and continue whisking.
• Add lemon juice and olive oil. Beat for a couple of minutes.
• Salt and pepper. Mix.
• Transfer the lemon pesto into a bowl and serve. Bon appetit!

How to make Italian Pesto sauce. Personal, practical experience. Advice (10+)

Pesto

Pesto sauce came to us from distant Italy. Traditional Pesto sauce is made from basil, but if desired, you can add parsley and dill to it. This sauce is perfect for pasta, various meat and fish dishes, and is also suitable for dressing salads. But Pesto sauce is not only very tasty, it is also very healthy. After all, it includes such ingredients as: basil, parmesan, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil. Therefore, before we start preparing the sauce, let's take a closer look at all the ingredients and their beneficial properties.

Ingredients of Pesto sauce

• Basil - a large bunch
• Parmesan - 50g,
• Garlic - 3 medium cloves,
• Pine nuts - 30g,
• Olive oil - 150 ml.

Now that we have weighed out all the necessary products, we need to pre-process them for the main cooking process.

Preparatory process

Take a bunch of basil and rinse it well under cold water. Then we put it on the board and cut off the stems from it, we only need the leaves. Place the basil leaves on a spread or wide plate and dry them well, and after drying, place them on a board and chop them finely. Now take the garlic cloves and peel them. Place the peeled cloves on a board and cut into small slices. Now all we have to do is prepare the cheese. To do this, take a fine grater and rub it.

The preparatory process is complete, now you can begin the main preparation of the sauce, for this we will need a blender.

Cooking technology

Place some of the basil in the blender bowl. Then take the grated cheese, add it to the basil, put pine nuts there and pour 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Turn on the blender and start grinding the ingredients. While chopping, add the remaining basil leaves and add the remaining olive oil. The sauce does not need to be crushed until it is homogeneous, it is only necessary for the ingredients to be crushed and mixed. Therefore, as soon as this happens, it means the sauce is ready, you can put it in a gravy boat and serve it to the table.

Basil

Basil is a very versatile aromatic herb that contains a lot of beneficial substances. Its leaves and shoots contain carotene, rutin, tannins, as well as vitamin P and many macro- and microelements. Basil leaves also contain essential oils, and basil also contains a lot of fiber and protein. Basil has found very wide application in cooking. It is used in various sauces or simply as a decoration. It is also often added to cold and hot dishes.

Parmesan cheese

Parmesan cheese is a hard cheese and has a scaly-grainy and brittle structure. The real cheese is made in Italy, although there are many similar cheeses made in China, America, Russia and Australia.

Parmesan is high in essential proteins and fatty acids. But, despite this, it does not contain cholesterol, so it is considered dietary. Parmesan also contains vitamins A, groups B, D and E, and minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, sodium, selenium. Thanks to this composition of nutrients, Parmesan is considered an indispensable product for children, the elderly and people with heavy physical activity.

Parmesan has a spicy taste and delicate aroma. Italians eat Parmesan in small pieces, washed down with wine. In cooking, it is used in risotto, in vegetable dishes, for sprinkling pasta, in meat dishes, and added to sauces and various salads.

Garlic

Garlic is one of the oldest vegetables, and our ancestors knew about its beneficial properties. Its most famous property is that garlic helps in the treatment of colds and strengthens the immune system. But besides this, it also has a lot of other useful properties.

Garlic contains such a useful substance as thiamine, which is necessary for the normal functioning of the nervous system. Garlic also contains nitrogenous substances, calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, silicic, sulfuric and phosphoric acids, vitamins C, D, B, extractives, essential oils. With the help of garlic, you can lower blood pressure, and it also has wound-healing, anthelmintic and antitoxic effects, and it is very useful for vitamin deficiencies.

Pine nuts

Pine nuts grow on both Siberian cedar and Siberian pine. On one tree, up to twelve kilograms of nuts can grow. Nuts contain many useful substances and vitamins, as well as proteins, fats, carbohydrates, as well as micro- and macroelements.

The amino acids contained in pine nuts are very beneficial for the body, some of them are essential and very scarce.

Macro- and microelements contained in nuts are iron, nickel, phosphorus, boron, iodine, copper, zinc, silicon, molybdenum, manganese, tin, potassium, magnesium, calcium and vanadium. All these substances are beneficial to the body and are necessary for its normal functioning.

Nuts also contain vitamins such as: K, B2, E, B3, B1 and A, as well as carbohydrates: sucrose, glucose, pentose, fiber, fructose, starch. In small quantities, pine nuts contain substances such as: iodides, sodium, titanium, silver, cobalt, barium and aluminum.

Olive oil

Olive oil is a very valuable product. The healthiest olive oil is considered to be natural, cold-pressed oil. The fats found in oil are unsaturated and the process of breaking them down is much faster, and also removes harmful cholesterol from the body. Olive oil also contains vitamins A, E, K, linoleic and fatty acids, oleocanthal and antioxidants.

If you use olive oil correctly, you can improve your health and strengthen your immune system. The likelihood of developing cancer is also reduced. The oil is also perfect for dietary nutrition, fatty acids reduce hunger, and weight is also reduced due to the choleretic properties of olive oil.

In general, due to the many beneficial properties of olive oil, it can be used not only in cooking, but also in medicine and cosmetology. In order for the oil to benefit the body, it must be consumed daily.

From the above we can conclude that Pesto sauce consists only of healthy products.

Pesto is a famous green Italian sauce with a bright, refreshing flavor. Pesto was invented in Genoa, in the region of Liguria, which is located in northern Italy. The sauce gets its name from the Italian word for “to grind.” And it is not without reason that it is consonant with the word “pestle”. Pesto sauce is prepared by thoroughly grinding all the ingredients in a marble mortar and pestle. This sauce is interesting because it does not require any heat treatment: the ingredients simply need to be chopped and mixed. There is a strict rule: no metal when preparing pesto, because the taste of basil deteriorates when interacting with metal. But modern housewives sometimes don’t have the time to grind basil and garlic in a mortar for an hour. So the most common way to make pesto is to use a food processor.

The first mention of pesto sauce is found in the Cookbook of Genoa, written by Giovanni Battista Ratto and published in 1863. It was there that the first written recipe for pesto was given, which included basil, olive oil, garlic, pine nuts and grated hard cheese.

Pesto sauce is so popular in Liguria that they even began to organize a world championship in preparing Genoese pesto in the traditional way, in a mortar. The basil for the championship is grown in Liguria in a special greenhouse, since real pesto, of course, is obtained only from Ligurian basil. And this is indeed so: Ligurian basil is completely devoid of mint flavor and has a particularly delicate, refined aroma.

Classic pesto is easy to prepare

Pesto sauce is considered not only a healthy and natural product, but also a democratic product, since the ingredients for it are available to everyone. Moreover, it is very easy to prepare. For pesto you will need:

70 g fresh basil from Genoa. Well, if basil has not yet been brought from Genoa, take regular green basil from the local market. The leaves shouldn't be too big.

30 g shelled pine nuts. Don't forget to toast them before you start making the sauce. And know that nuts are not the main thing in pesto. The sauce should not taste overtly nutty. Pine nuts only add originality to the sauce.

60 g grated hard Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

40 g grated Pecorino or Fiore Sardo cheese.

2 cloves of garlic.

80 g extra virgin olive oil.

Step-by-step instruction

Wash the basil leaves in cold water and then dry them with a kitchen towel. Crush the garlic and pine nuts in a marble mortar. Add some sea salt and basil to the mortar and start grinding everything in a circular motion. Don't use a blender unless you're in a hurry; basil in a blender will oxidize quickly due to the heat. Consequently, the pesto will quickly lose its signature green color and turn brown. Once the mixture in the mortar resembles green cream, add two types of cheese to the sauce. It is unnecessary to remind you that the cheeses must be grated in advance. The mixture is again ground with a pestle, and olive oil is added at the end. If the sauce is intended for sandwiches, you can add less oil, and if you need pesto for pasta, make it thinner by adding a little more oil. Products for pesto should be at the same temperature and in no case fresh from the refrigerator. You should not make pesto in industrial quantities. But if you end up with more sauce than you can eat at once, put the sauce in a jar, add olive oil and put it in the refrigerator, covering it with a lid or film on top. For two or three days the sauce will be quite edible.

Provençal pesto is slightly different from Genoese. There are no pine nuts in it. Almonds are sometimes used instead, and mint leaves are added to the basil. Sicilian pesto includes tomatoes and almonds, but there is much less basil. In Germany, pesto is generally made from wild garlic, not basil. And very often, instead of quite expensive pine nuts, cheaper nuts are added to pesto.

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 using the old culinary “tools” - a mortar and pestle, and no food processor can give the same result. Modern pesto is made from green basil leaves, the best quality olive oil and hard Parmesan cheese, called Parmigiano Reggiano in Italy.

Pesto got its name from the Italian pestato, pestare - to trample, grind, crush. That is, the name of the sauce is based on the method of preparation. This is worth remembering, since there is no other way to achieve a resemblance to the famous, but simple in cooking sauce that will be served to you in any eatery in Italy. Pesto comes not only green, but also red (with the addition of sun-dried tomatoes). This sauce is used primarily for pasta or lasagna, but in Italy it can often be added to soups, spread on bread or toast, and can be used in other unusual ways.

Pesto sauce is believed to originate from the Liguria region of northern Italy, as well as Genoa, and has been known since Roman times. There is evidence that 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 are inclined to believe that pesto sauce or something similar to it was prepared 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 occurs only in 1865 in the book “Cooks of Genoa” by Giovanni Battista Ratto.

The main component of modern pesto is basil. Basil was first cultivated in India, from where, according to some sources, this aromatic plant came to North Africa, and then to the territory of modern Italy. It should be clarified that the purple basil familiar to Russia is characteristic of the Caucasus and the Balkans. This is not a good choice for pesto. In Italy, basil with green leaves is mainly used. Basil has gained particular popularity in Northern Italy, the Liguria region and southern French Provence. By the way, in Provence, a sauce similar to pesto is prepared with parsley and a lot of different types of cheese, but without nuts.

Classic pesto recipe

Ingredients:

Young basil leaves from the Pra region
. extra virgin olive oil from Liguria
. Italian pine nuts (pine seeds)
. Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padana cheese
. sheep pecorino cheese Fiore Sardo
. dried garlic from the Vessaliko region
. coarse sea salt

Preparation:

Gently rinse and dry the basil leaves, 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 begin to gently grind the leaves until they turn into a paste. Add grated cheese on the finest grater to the well-grated mass, mix thoroughly and add olive oil. Pesto should be neither thick nor thin. Add ingredients based on your taste.

This pesto recipe requires some explanation. In Italian cookbooks you will not find exact proportions, only important notes, such as which province the basil should be taken from or which types of cheese are especially good. This is easy to explain: in Italy, every chef prepares his own pesto, and this is one of the advantages of Italian cuisine, its secret and carefully guarded tradition. Following it, you need to try to imagine the end result and select the ratios of products based on your own experience and taste. Moreover, not a single Italian chef would dare to weigh basil leaves or measure the amount of olive oil. Everything is done on a whim, with constant testing.

Of course, it is quite difficult for us to follow the original recipe, and we cannot avoid substitutions. What can be replaced and with what, and what should become inviolable?
. Green basil. Purple is not suitable; it can give an unattractive dark color and an overly bright aroma. Basil from the Pra region of Italy has lemony aroma and flavor. It is known in the markets as lemon or mint basil. In Italy, sometimes a little mint is added to regular green basil if Pra basil cannot be found.
. Parmesan. Let it be any of the European copies, but there should not be any Russian, Suluguni or sour cream cheeses in the pesto!
. Olive oil. Only better. Try it on your tongue; if it tastes bitter and leaves a “nail in the throat,” as the Italians say, then it’s not suitable 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 Italian pine seeds, which are 3-4 times larger than our pine nuts. You can use regular Siberian pine nuts if you can’t get Italian ones. It is known for certain that pine grows in the Crimea and the Caucasus. Do not substitute walnuts, they may cause bitterness. Some people like their cashews unroasted, so experiment.
. Sheep cheese. Even in some places in 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’s difficult to say why garlic from Vessaliko is 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 in minerals and should be in every kitchen.

In Italy, mint is often 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 preparation methods and overlapping ingredients. The most striking example is the Provençal 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 pistou, but more often the sauce is prepared without nuts at all. Typically, French pistou is used as a seasoning for summer soup. There is no strict recipe for a special soup for pistou; the main condition is fresh summer vegetables: green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, new potatoes. Pistou sauce is added to the finished soup when serving or served separately so that everyone can add it to the soup to taste. In Italy they also eat soup with pesto and call it minestrone al pesto

In the USA, sun-dried tomatoes and hot peppers are added to pesto. In many countries, walnuts are added instead of pine nuts. This is especially true in Latin and North America, the Caucasus, and Russia. A similar cooking principle is used in Georgian sauces bazhe and satsivi; In the same way, the ingredients for adjika are ground in a mortar.

A legitimate question arises: why still use outdated 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, which were traditionally prepared by grinding ingredients in stone or wooden mortars, cannot be replicated using modern kitchen appliances such as blenders. The blender quickly grinds the tender leaves, which stick to the walls, and as a result, instead of homogeneity, a large contrast is obtained between scraps of uncrushed parts and a homogeneous pulp. 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. It’s even faster to prepare pesto in a mortar than in a blender, while the color remains rich green, the cooking process is conscious, it’s easy to control and adjust the composition along the way.

The most interesting thing is what to serve with pesto sauce. 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 made with fresh vegetables and herbs. Pesto goes especially well with rocket salad 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 placing the ingredients. Pesto keeps well in the refrigerator. Select a transparent container, sterilize it and transfer the excess pesto into a cooled jar. It is unlikely that it will stay in the refrigerator for a long time, but still do not store it for too long and check for mold if the pesto still stagnates.

Pesto loves experiments. Try this sauce with rice, rice noodles, boiled potatoes, add to vegetable salads, and 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 omelette or quiche, to a closed vegetable or meat pie, to homemade bread or pies. Practice moderation and trust your taste.

It would seem that there is so much in our kitchen, all kinds of mechanisms and devices - mixers, blenders, food processors. However, no, no, but you have to take out the good old mortar and work like in the old days. Tell me - why? For example, to prepare Italian Pesto sauce - well, he doesn’t like new products, he prefers that the main ingredients are ground with a mortar and pestle. The sauce has some kind of energy that can only be created by hand.

The authorship of Pesto sauce is attributed to the Persians; it got its name from the word to trample, grind, crush. Any eatery in Italy will serve you this sauce, and everywhere it will be different. The original sauce is green in color because it contains the obligatory green basil leaves. It is served with pasta or lasagna, sometimes in soups, or even simply spread on bread or toast. According to legend, sailors took it with them on long voyages, and when they landed on land, they smelled of basil. The red color is obtained by adding tomatoes, but not fresh, but always dried.

Pesto sauce - food preparation

There are no exact proportions for the sauce. However, the main ingredients are almost constant. First of all, it's basil. Only green leaves are taken, red is not suitable - it has too strong an aroma and can turn the dish into an unattractive color. Parmesan is a necessary ingredient; it is most suitable among hard cheeses. Some try to replace it with suluguni or sour cream cheeses, but these are already variations on the Pesto theme.

Pine nuts are the seeds of the Italian pine tree. They are much larger in size than Siberian cedar nuts. Simpler versions add walnuts, cheaper cheeses and vegetable oil. Sometimes mint and sheep cheese are added to the sauce. For Italian pasta you will need pasta. Pumpkin Pesto is prepared from pumpkin seeds; wild garlic has taken root in Russia instead of basil.

Pesto sauce - the best recipes

Recipe 1: Classic Pesto for meat, fish, spaghetti

A simple sauce will add variety to meat and fish. It’s very simple to make – you don’t need to boil or fry anything, just grind and mix the prepared ingredients.

Ingredients: bunch of basil, cheese (50 grams, Parmesan), olive oil (100 grams), garlic (2 cloves), pine nuts (50 grams), juice of half a lemon.

Cooking method

Let's prepare the products - peel the garlic, divide it into pieces, wash and dry the basil, chop it finely. Grate the cheese on a coarse grater. Mix the ingredients and grind in a mortar. Of course, no one can prohibit using an electric meat grinder or blender. If you decide to crush it in a mortar, add the ingredients gradually. Mix with vegetable oil. Our task is to get a homogeneous mass, but still not to overdo it. Season to taste with salt and lemon juice. You can serve Pesto with meat or fish dishes, or simply with croutons. If some of the sauce remains unused, it is better to freeze it. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator.

Recipe 2: Pesto sauce with tomatoes

This sauce is also used for pasta, pizza, lasagna, or with croutons and crackers. Sun-dried tomatoes can be cut into pieces or minced through a meat grinder. We will simply fry pieces of fresh tomatoes in a frying pan in a small amount of oil.

Ingredients: mozzarella cheese (125 grams), tomatoes (6-8 pcs.), garlic (3 cloves), parmesan (grate, 50 grams), nuts (pine nuts, fried, 30 grams), olive oil (125 grams), balsamic vinegar ( 1 spoon), salt, pepper.

Cooking method

Cut tomatoes and cheese into thin slices. Fry the tomatoes, place the cheese on plates. Wash the basil, then separate the leaves from the stems. Make puree from garlic and leaves in a mortar or mixer, grate cheese, crush nuts with olive oil. Mix everything, season with salt, pepper, add dried tomatoes, cut into small pieces. Decorate with basil leaves.

Examples of dishes with Pesto Sauce

Recipe 1: Fish in Pesto sauce

The thick sauce makes the fish firm, tender and infused with the flavors of basil and garlic. Fish is better than dry types, lean and low-fat. Let's add more familiar parsley or celery to the sauce.

Ingredients: fish fillet (500 grams), salt, pepper, pesto sauce.

Pesto sauce: garlic (2 cloves), green basil, pine nuts, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, salt, parsley or celery.

Cooking method

Grease a baking dish with vegetable oil. You can place foil on the bottom of the pan to make it easier to clean later. Season the fillet with salt and pepper on one side. Coat the top with sauce. Place the pan in a well-heated oven and bake at 200 degrees.

Recipe 2: Pesto Paste

A distinctive feature of Italian pasta is that it is not cooked completely, and then absorbs some more water. Therefore it never sticks together.

Ingredients: pasta (1 pack, 450 grams), Pesto sauce, a little olive oil and Parmesan cheese.

Cooking method

Boil the pasta. Drain the water, but leave a cup of broth. Mix the finished pasta with a spoon of olive oil or butter. There should be some liquid at the bottom of the pan. Olive oil does not dry out the pasta; it becomes juicier. Add sauce to pasta and sprinkle Parmesan on top. This type of cheese only melts at high temperatures, so it won't melt into hot pasta.

— Fish dishes with sauce are especially tasty. Try a fish fillet, such as salmon, wrapped in thinly sliced ​​ham, drizzle with a little olive oil and baked in a high oven. Delicious, especially with a regular vegetable salad.

— To store the sauce, a transparent glass container is sterilized, the sauce is laid out in it and stored in the refrigerator.

— Pesto is a great alternative to tomato sauce for pizza. The sauce can be served with oven-baked or grilled vegetables and herbs.

— If you couldn’t get pine nuts, crush almonds or hazelnuts in a mortar.