Fresh pasta sauce seem to taste better when you’re able to make it homemade. This Fresh basil pesto recipe by Food Wishes only requires 5 ingredients. I love watching Chef John’s tutorials on YouTube because he is thorough and funny when he’s showing how to make any type of recipe. His voice sounds super staged like a salesperson and I adore it. Chef John says the real way to make pesto is by using a mortar and pestle. However, if you don’t have one, you can use a blender. The intensity of flavors would taste more powerful, fragrant, and pure if it is smashed in a mortar.
Ingredients:
- 4 cloves garlic peeled
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 large bunch basil (about 4-5 ounces)
- 3 tablespoons pine nuts
- 2 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated on Microplane (about 1 1/2 cups unpacked)
- 1/2 cup mild extra virgin olive oil
Directions:
First, crush your garlic in the mortar with a pinch of kosher or sea salt. Crush the garlic with the pestle until you get a garlic paste. Then, put in as much basil in the mortar and pound it until it breaks down. Continue the process until it’s all incorporated.
Second, once you have a fairly fine paste of basil, add in the pine nuts. Then, add the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and work it in with the pestle.
In conclusion, fresh pesto sauce is simple to make. My parents grow fresh basil in the backyard which would be perfect to make a small jar full of pesto to store in my fridge. I’ve never had raw pesto before with bread, only served with pasta. I’ve learned from Chef John to put the fresh basil pesto sauce on the bottom of the bowl with olive oil and mix the pasta in the bowl. Honestly, that’s probably the best way to do it to keep the freshness of the pesto.