2016-12-05

Hello my dear readers! Not at all by itself, but on the advice of Olya Afinskaya, well known to many bloggers, the idea came to my head to arrange an Italian party for the New Year. I made a sample menu for the New Year “before” and it turned out to be a lot of Italian dishes. It was urgent to get a classic recipe for pesto. I really wanted to cook with this sauce.

I will not go into digressions about the origin of this Italian specialty. Google to help you. Yes, and all pesto recipes on the net are full of the same description. I don't want to repeat myself. For a recipe for homemade classic pesto sauce, I turned to an old family friend, Senor Saltoformaggio.

How delighted he was when he found in me a grateful, and most importantly, very patient listener. The wife of Senor Michele, the venerable Pani Magda (here she is), did not let his oratorical gift run wild. I will give you a summary of the lecture I listened to via Skype today.

What is the best basil to make pesto?

Varieties of basil are like stars in the sky. But we need green, and not just any green, but Genoese. It has domed, glossy, medium-sized bright green leaves, similar to "il paracadute" (parachute) and an intoxicating anise aroma. In other varieties, the aroma is “not the same”. It has an admixture of mint and lemon notes, which is “not comme il faut” for a classic pesto.

God, what subtleties! Fortunately for me, in our local market they often sell just such a suitable one in bunches and flower pots. I sniffed at the purchased bundle and closed my eyes with pleasure - I don’t know if it is pure “blood”, but it smells divine! We have one "correct" ingredient for the recipe.

What "gadgets" to use to make pesto

1. Authentic set of tools: marble mortar and wooden(!) pestle.
2. Modern inventory: blender.

My remarks

• Last New Year I received a wonderful marble mortar with a marble pestle as a gift from my son. I will cook pesto “semi-authentically” - where can I get a wooden one? So that the ingredients do not overheat, I will cool them in the refrigerator. I think that the classic recipe will not suffer much, and I won’t say anything to the Italian.
• The blender is very attractive, I will definitely try it too. By the standards of adherents of Italian cuisine - a complete bad manners, but quickly and practically.

The classic composition and ratio of products in the recipe for pesto sauce from Genoa

Ingredients

• 50 g basil leaves.
• 1 tablespoon pine nuts.
• 50 g parmesan.
• 50 g pecorino.
• 2 cloves of homemade juicy aromatic garlic.

My remarks

• The first question that arose about the composition of the products for the classic pesto recipe: 50 grams - how many leaves? Armed with electronic scales, I weighed 2 leaves (together with a salt shaker, otherwise the scales did not react to their mass) - their mass is 1 gram! Therefore, one has a mass of only 0.5 grams. To prepare pesto according to this recipe, we need 100 pieces (a bunch of about 10 branches).
• Pine nuts in our conditions will have to be replaced with pine nuts.
• Pecorino at the moment I could not find. I don't know how much "classic" will suffer if I make pesto with only Parmesan.

How to make classic pesto from Genoa

Cooking the old fashioned way

We put peeled garlic, nuts and a couple of grains of coarse sea salt in a mortar (to enhance the surroundings). Vigorously, with vortex movements, rub counterclockwise until the mass becomes like a cream.

After that, we put pure basil with salt, ruthlessly three, tearing the unfortunate fibers of the leaves, releasing essential oils. Movements are circular. We do not crush, namely we rub.

Add grated cheese in several portions. Olive oil comes last, everything is thoroughly mixed and that's it.

Modern way

It's even easier here. Washed and towel-dried basil, peeled garlic, salt, nuts, chopped cheese and olive oil put in a blender bowl.
"Whack"! A minute and he's ready.

My remarks

• It’s even somehow inconvenient that the famous recipe for the classic pesto sauce fit into a few lines. No wonder they say that everything ingenious is simple. But the devil is in the details! You can do everything strictly according to the classical canons, and you will not like the taste of pesto sauce, although you love each product individually with tender love.
• The proportions of ingredients are not a dogma. You may be the one who likes a pesto recipe with more or less nuts. Some may not like the overt "rivalry" between the two dominant flavors - basil and extra virgin olive oil. In this case, “compose” a recipe for yourself: take refined for cooking, experiment with the amount of nuts and cheese.

Classic Trapani pesto recipe

Ingredients

• 8-10 fresh fleshy cherry tomatoes
• 3-6 garlic cloves.
• 40-50 g of almonds.
• 40 g bread crumbs.
• 100 ml extra virgin olive oil.
• 50 basil leaves
• Black peppercorns.
• Sea salt.

How to cook

Blanch the tomatoes, remove the skin from them, remove the seeds with the liquid. Dry the bread crumbs in a pan, dry the almonds in a pan for 3-4 minutes.

We cowardly take a blender, put the ingredients indicated in the recipe in the bowl. We grind, but without fanaticism. It turns out such a beauty, as in the photo.

My remarks

• Michele informed me that Trapani is a port city in Sicily. The recipe for this pesto is recognized by the Academy (some Italian culinary, I didn’t quite understand) as a classic, along with the well-known green basil pesto recipe.
• Bread crumbs can be replaced with large white breadcrumbs.

How to prepare for the winter

The season for fresh seasonal vegetables and herbs is very short. So you wanted to have a buziata with pesto in the middle of winter, and what should you do? To deny yourself such pleasure only for the reason that in a supermarket for a jar (with a displacement of a thimble) of Italian pesto (you read the composition, you will be surprised a lot) they ask for an aircraft carrier? Oh no! We will simply freeze homemade pesto for the winter in plastic containers (if you have a lot of it).
Or modestly - in molds for ice.

If your only goal is to keep the sauce for a few days, then top it with olive oil and refrigerate. But I'm afraid that keeping it in public places is a stupid idea. They will eat and not blink an eye! Who? Yes, everyone who finds it. So we got to the main question: what is it eaten with?

What do they eat with

"Pesto" is not a recipe with certain ingredients, but a method of preparation. After all, "pesto" means "to crush, rub, stomp." Therefore, this is just a technology for preparing a whole galaxy of great sauces.

We will talk about wild garlic pesto, nettle, arugula at our next meetings, if you, my dear readers, are interested. Write about it in the comments, please!
If you find something useful in my writings, then share what you found on social networks, I will be very grateful. Subscribe to blog updates - I promise a lot of boring communication.
Always yours Irina.
Allow me to bow and wish you all the best! I love the combination of great music and dance. Celentano knows how to stir up the soul.
Fantasia Flamenca "Aria...non sei più tu"