pesto genovese
genovese pesto
I’ve been eating this stuff since the summer of 1977 and making it myself since the mid 1980s. I almost always go ‘pragmatic’ and use a blender; I’ve probably made pesto with a pestle and mortar only a handful of times, EVER.
My pesto is subtly to moderately garlicky and it has a varied, rustic texture. It’s definitely not the babyfood-smooth texture I was hertbroken to eat a few times at restaurants in Genova last summer. Hopefully it’ll be a passing phase.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO
(scroll down for the full method)
prepare and weigh all the ingredients
chill the blender bowl and blade
grate the 2 cheeses
weigh the pinoli
peel and chop garlic
measure and mix 2 oils
pick the basil
begin with salt and basil
add ingredients in rotation
taste
adjust
store under oil
genovese pesto
INGREDIENTS
FOR 4-5 PEOPLE
PESTO GENOVESE
approx 60g of a 50:50 mix of pecorino & parmesan
100g fresh basil leaves
120ml olive oil (50:50 mix EVO and Olive Oil)
1 large clove garlic
50g pinoli
black pepper
METHOD
Start by preparing all your ingredients, which normally means just picking the leaves, grating the cheese and peeling and chopping the garlic. There's a school of thought that says if you start by blending JUST the basil leaves and a pink of salt BEFORE adding any other ingredients, you increase the chances of keeping a bright green colour in your pesto. I haven't rested this theory scientifically and my view is that the colour of your final pesto well depend more on the variety of basil and time of year it was grown.... but I almost always start my pesto blends this way now!
After 2 or 3 pulse bends of just leaves and salt, it’s just a matter of adding each of the ingredients in rotation, in small quantities (maybe half a handful), as you pulse-blend. Taste the pesto every couple of additions and just keep going until you’ve got the balance of flavours you like - if you stick to the quantities in this recipe you'll possibly only have to adjust oil / cheese balance, to taste.
And now some pesto-making tips you shouldn’t ignore:
In UK supermarkets, your best bet for basil are the potted growing varieties. Plants in the winter seasons will give you stronger tasting leaves than those grown in warmer months. Avoid the packets of ready-picked stalks with larger, more pointed, darker leaves grown in Africa or South America, they’re also normally pretty bitter.
Pick EACH leaf individually, pinching it between your finger nails to separate it from the stalk. Never use any of the stalks.
Years ago I used to wash my basil leaves by placing them in a bowl of water, draining and then patting them dry between layers of dishcloths, now I just skip the washing altogether, as long as the leaves look clean and aren’t muddy at all. •
I use a 50:50 mix of Extra Virgin and Normal Olive Oil, as EVO can sometimes give you a really bitter pesto. Alternatively, If you can find (or afford!) lighter Ligurian olive oil, use that!
If you’re going to use a blender, chilling the bowl and the blade in a freezer for at least 30 mins reduces the chance of the basil turning black during the blend. Pulse blend, and do it quickly, don’t drag out the blending.
Don’t over-blend! Some texture and the odd larger chunk of nut are fine..... however DO crush the garlic before throwing it in the blender - you want to avoid larger chunks of garlic remaining in your pesto!
The longer, thinner Italian pinoli are sweeter and creamier and, I tghink, much nicer than the short, stubby Chinese ones which seem to be the most popular in UK supermarkets (right)
Store fresh pesto in a jar in the fridge under a layer of oil and eat within 4 days of making it
The ‘official’ modern Pesto Genovese recipe says you need to use pecorino Sardo, not Romano, but in the UK you’ll probably struggle to find Sardo. Romano is absolutely fine, but do try and do the 50:50 pecorino and parmesan mix, you’ll get a much less buttery result.
Ideally, buy a wedge of pecorino and one of parmesan at least a week or two before you want to make pesto. Remove them from their plastic packaging and wrap them in kitchen towel, allowing them to dry out and harden naturally in your fridge. The cheese you grate with be so much fluffier and blend so much lighter than if you use younger, just-out-of-the-wrapper cheese.
Micro-plane graters are rubbish. This will sound obsessive to some, but I always prefer to grate hardened cheese for pesto using old-fashioned graters (see above) with wider, punched, star-shaped holes. They’re much safer to use and produce tiny short curls or splinters of cheese that is more like saw dust, rather than the longer ‘ribbons’ that come off a micro-plane grater. I think they make a much nicer blend of pesto... but then I do take a ridiculously high interest in these kind of details.
NUTRITION per serving
KCAL: 324
Fat (g): 32.7
Sat Fat (g): 6.2
Carb (g): 1.6
Sug (g): 0.5
Fibre(g): 0.8
Prot (g): 5.8
Salt (g): 0.41
