My Pesto Is The Besto…

Yes, okay, you caught me- the title is a F.R.I.E.N.D.S quote but I have been told that it’s true. After someone on Instagram (@SoulFoodFrancesca) requested the recipe for the pesto that I had on my pasta I thought I would write it up and share it on here so you can all have it!

Pesto is a sauce that comes from Liguria in northern Italy and it has been a firm favorite in England for a long time. The name comes from the Italian word ‘pestare’ which means ‘to pound’. Traditionally it is created with basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan (Parmigiano-Reggiano) and Fiore Sardo (a hard sheep’s cheese from Sardinia). However, people are increasingly ‘mixing it up’ and swapping ingredients such as the pine nuts for cashews. I am a bit of a purist when it comes to my pesto because I was given the recipe by a Nonna in Salo, Italy. Like most Italian dishes, every Nonna’s recipe will differ but as I was trusted with this one there is no way I am going to alter it (it’s just too good).

Now, it’s becoming more widely known that your pasta shape should be chosen to complement the sauce that you are using. For example fusilli and penne are great with a fine meat ragu (like Bolognese) as the sauce gets caught in all of the nooks and crannies or fills the tubes up. If your ragu is a little chunkier Fiori is a great, and underused, shape. Pasta such as spaghetti and linguini are better for sauces like Carbonara or Pomodoro as each strand gets a light, even coating. My personal favorite to have with pesto is Trofie. It is starting to pop up in more and more supermarkets and thank god! I love making pasta but I don’t have the patience to sit and roll out millions of trofie every time I fancy a bowl of pasta and pesto. But to hell with pasta etiquette, if you want Tagliatelle and pesto (like I did the other day) or Penne Puttanesca (anything other than Spaghetti with a Puttanesca sauce is considered criminal in Italy) then do it.

Okay, this list may get me killed for being ‘non traditional’ but who cares…

Other Uses For Your

Pesto:

• Drizzled over a plate of Carpaccio

• On crostini as a canapé

• As a tomato replacement on homemade pizza

• Smeared inside a cheese omelet (see picture)

• Baked into bread (that you can then turn into garlic pesto dough balls!)

The Besto Pesto

Ingredients

170g Pine Nuts (European if possible)

225g Parmigiano Reggiano

5 cloves garlic (if you find it too strong, try 3)

Salt to taste

A Big Bunch Of Basil

Olive Oil (the best quality that you can get)

Method

You can make it the traditional way, using a pestle and mortar if you feel so inclined but I use my trusty food processor (and so did the Nonna who gave me the recipe…shhhhh)

By Hand:

Throw all of the ingredients into the mortar and get pounding (as the name would suggest). You need to slowly add the olive oil as you go until you get the consistency that you want.

In The Food Processor:

The same as above: throw all of the ingredients into the food processor and turn it on. You need to slowly add the olive oil as you go until you get the consistency that you want.

How easy was that! Just remember to store your pesto in the fridge. It may firm up a little, if so just ‘loosen’ it with a little more olive oil.

Now you can wazz up a batch of scrummy pesto to enjoy with whatever you want, safe in the knowledge that your pesto is the besto.

xo