Pesto alla Genovese – The Original with Basil and Parmesan
Italy's most famous uncooked sauce: fresh basil, garlic, Parmesan, nuts and good olive oil. Ready in 10 minutes with no cooking at all, and it transforms any pasta, bruschetta or salad.
The name comes from the mortar — pestare means to pound. If you use a food processor instead, work it in pulses: run continuously and the basil heats against the blade, turns bitter and goes dark.
And the last step is the one nobody does: a spoonful of the hot pasta water stirred into the pesto before serving. That is what makes it coat the noodles instead of sinking to the bottom of the bowl.
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh basil leaves
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
- 1/3 cup pine nuts (or walnuts as a substitute)
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Method
- 1
Toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet (frying pan), with no oil, until they smell fragrant. Let them cool: ground while hot they turn oily.
- 2
Crush the garlic together with the pine nuts, in a mortar or in the food processor.
- 3
Add the basil and process in pulses. Run the machine continuously and the basil heats against the blade, turns bitter and darkens.
- 4
Add the olive oil little by little, in a thin stream, until the pesto comes together and turns creamy.
- 5
Stir in the Parmesan by hand at the end, without processing it, and adjust the salt.
- 6
Before serving, loosen the pesto with a spoonful of the hot pasta cooking water: that is what makes it coat the noodles instead of sitting at the bottom of the plate.
Flavors of the Mediterranean: From Our Table to Yours
If one kitchen invites you to sit down at a long table and stay there, it is the Mediterranean. This is our personal selection of dishes that celebrate freshness, sun and good produce: recipes that smell of basil, lemon and sea. Technique in the service of simplicity — and dishes that come out right every time.
