Pesto Genovese comes from Liguria, on the north west coast of Italy. It has seven ingredients and no cooking. That makes it quick, but it also means every ingredient shows. Fresh basil, real cheese and an olive oil you would happily eat on bread are what separate it from the jarred kind.
This recipe makes enough for 400 g of pasta, which serves four.
Ingredients
- 50 g fresh basil leaves, picked from the stems (about two large bunches)
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- 25 g pine nuts
- 40 g Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated
- 20 g Pecorino, finely grated
- 100 ml extra virgin olive oil, plus a little to cover
- A pinch of coarse sea salt
Before you start
Wash the basil only if it needs it, then dry it completely. Spread the leaves on a clean tea towel and pat them gently. Wet leaves make watery pesto, and bruised leaves turn dark.
Use young, small leaves if you can find them. They are sweeter and less minty than the big leaves at the bottom of the plant.
A word on the oil. In Liguria the tradition is a mild, gentle oil, so it does not cover the basil. If yours is very peppery, taste as you go. You may want a little less, or you may love the extra bite. Either way, use extra virgin. Pesto is raw, so the oil tastes exactly as it does from the bottle.
Method 1: mortar and pestle
This is the traditional way, and it gives the best texture. The basil is crushed rather than chopped, so it releases its aroma without heating up or going bitter. It takes about 15 minutes.
- Put the garlic and the salt in the mortar. Grind them to a smooth paste. The salt works as an abrasive and helps the basil keep its colour.
- Add the pine nuts and grind until they are broken down into a coarse paste.
- Add the basil a handful at a time. Do not pound it. Press the pestle against the side of the mortar and rotate it in a circle, grinding the leaves against the stone. Keep going until the basil becomes a bright green, fairly smooth paste.
- Stir in both cheeses and work them in with the pestle.
- Pour in the oil in a thin stream, stirring with the pestle until the pesto is loose and glossy.
- Taste and add a little more salt if it needs it. The cheeses are salty, so go carefully.
Method 2: food processor
Faster, and still very good if you avoid one problem: heat. A fast spinning blade warms the basil, and warm basil turns dark and loses its fresh flavour.
- Put the processor bowl and blade in the fridge for 20 minutes before you start.
- Pulse the garlic, salt and pine nuts until finely chopped.
- Add the basil and half the oil. Pulse in short bursts, scraping down the sides, until you have a coarse paste. Short pulses keep the heat down.
- Tip the mixture into a bowl. Stir in the cheeses and the rest of the oil by hand. Mixing the cheese in by hand stops it turning gummy.
- Taste and adjust the salt.
Serving it
Trofie and trenette are the classic Ligurian shapes. Linguine works well too. In Genoa it is often cooked with a handful of green beans and a few cubes of potato in the same pot as the pasta.
Never heat pesto in a pan. Put it in a warm serving bowl, add the drained pasta and loosen everything with a few spoonfuls of the starchy cooking water. The heat of the pasta is all it needs.
Storing pesto
Spoon leftover pesto into a small, clean jar and press it down to remove air pockets. Pour a thin film of olive oil over the top so the surface is fully covered. The oil keeps air off the basil, which is what turns it brown.
Keep the jar in the fridge and use it within a few days. Each time you take some out, smooth the top and add a little more oil.
To keep it longer, freeze it in an ice cube tray without the cheese. Stir the cheese in after it thaws.
The oil matters here
A pesto uses 100 ml of oil and none of it is cooked, so this is a good place to use a bottle you like. Ours is extra virgin olive oil from Dukat, in Vlorë county, Albania. It comes in 0.5 L dark glass bottles with the harvest date and batch code printed on each one. If you would like to try it in your next pesto, you can find it here.