A long time ago, the Italians came up with this delicious sauce made from fresh basil, olive oil and pine nuts, and it has since begun its journey around the world. It also came to us a long time ago, but if you still haven’t tried real Italian pesto sauce, then it’s time to cook it and join the ranks of its fans.

Pesto sauce is served primarily with pasta, various pasta dishes, spaghetti. This is probably the first dish that comes to mind. But pasta is not limited to everything. When you try to make pesto at home, you will understand by its taste alone that it is perfect for chicken, fish, and even meat dishes. There are recipes for making pizza with pesto sauce, it can be added to soups and salads. It's delicious to spread this sauce on bread. Imagine fresh bread or toasted brown toast with a fragrant green sauce.

Now for the preparation of pesto sauce, a blender is most often used, submersible or with a large bowl. But some cooks, including professional chefs, use manual methods of grinding ingredients, such as a mortar. Perhaps a slightly different sauce will taste in a mortar. Due to the fact that greens, nuts and garlic are not just cut with rapidly rotating knives, but, as it were, are crushed, let out more juice.

Classic Italian Pesto - Easy Recipe

A modern version of pesto sauce is made from a fairly simple set of ingredients. As a result, we get a very fragrant and fresh sauce of basil leaves, olive oil and pine nuts. Sea salt and pepper are added for taste. This is a basic recipe that some cooks are starting to modify by replacing herbs and nuts, as well as adding other products.

You will need:

• fresh basil leaves - 100 grams;
• pine nuts - 100 grams;
• parmesan - 100 grams;
• olive oil - 50-100 ml;
• garlic - 2-3 cloves;
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Cooking:

1. Grind the garlic and pine nuts with a blender, immersion or with a bowl. It is necessary to achieve a small crumb.

2. Wash and dry fresh basil. Extra water in the sauce is not needed. Separate the leaves from the stems and put the leaves in a blender with the nuts and sauce.

3. Grate the parmesan. It can be both small and large, since the cheese will be crushed again in a blender. It is best to take the Parmesan in a piece and grate it yourself. But if it doesn’t work out at all, take a dry one, which is sold in stores. But remember, sometimes it is not made entirely from natural cheese, read the composition.

4. Pour 50 ml of olive oil into the blender. This part will be for the initial grinding, and we will need the remaining 50 ml in order to bring the pesto sauce to the desired consistency.

5. Grind all the components of the sauce in a blender to a mushy form. The nuts should turn out a little crumbs, and the basil leaves in small pieces. If desired, you can grind in your favorite texture, a little larger if you like pieces of nuts, or smaller if you want a smooth and very delicate sauce.

6. Transfer the finished sauce to a gravy boat or small cup. You can immediately add to dishes. The sauce also keeps well in the refrigerator and can be prepared ahead of time.

Bon appetit!

Pesto sauce can have very interesting variations. It is difficult to say how its inventors and lovers of culinary traditions feel about this, but I am for the fact that the dish can be modified to your taste. You can also make a delicious sauce from walnuts, although its taste will differ from the option with pine nuts. If you love walnuts or if you have them on hand, feel free to prepare pesto with walnuts. It will be delicious!

You will need:

• fresh basil - 50 grams;
• walnuts - 50 grams;
• olive oil - 6 tablespoons;
• garlic - 3 cloves;
• parmesan cheese - 50 grams;
• lemon juice - 1 teaspoon;
• salt and pepper to taste.

Cooking:

1. Take fresh Parmesan and grate it on a very fine grater. You can on a special parmesan.

2. In a blender bowl or bowl (if you have a submersible) put fresh basil leaves. It can be green or purple as per your taste. You can make a mixture of different varieties of basil, then you get a beautiful dark green sauce. Do not use stems for sauce.

3. Peel and lightly fry the walnut kernels to make them crispy. Add to blender.

4. Add peeled garlic cloves. Grind all products to a thick cereal mass. To facilitate the process, you can add olive oil during the grinding process.

5. Add oil to the sauce and bring it to the desired consistency. Squeeze fresh lemon juice and add to the sauce, mix and taste. Add salt and pepper to taste.

The original pesto sauce with walnuts is ready. It's time to prepare the main course or toast crispy toast.

Ramson is a forest wild plant with beautiful dark green oblong leaves. Slightly pungent in taste with a garlic smell. Some people like to make a salad out of it or cook spring cabbage soup, and I suggest making pesto sauce from wild garlic. Add to it ground nuts, silent oil, and you can even not put garlic, the grass itself will give sharpness. For wild garlic lovers, this version of the sauce is very suitable.

You will need:

• wild garlic leaves without stems - 200 grams;
• olive oil - 150-200 ml;
• a mixture of nuts - 200 grams;
• salt to taste.

Cooking:

1. Rinse and dry thoroughly fresh wild garlic. Then separate the stems from the leaves.

2. Put the leaves in the blender bowl and pour in the nuts. Salt to taste and drizzle with olive oil.

3. Grind all the contents to a thick, gritty mass.

Wild garlic pesto sauce is ready. It is best to eat it fresh, but you can put it in the refrigerator, for this, close it in jars, and pour a spoonful of oil on top, this will allow the sauce to last longer. This sauce is perfect for potatoes or meat.

Delicious, homemade and very budget option for the sauce. Whose beds with fresh parsley turn green in the country practically won the lottery. Indeed, for such a delicious sauce, the freshest herb is needed. Parsley sauce turns out to be very fragrant and healthy, but a slightly darker shade of green, which is easy to explain, yet the basil is brighter. In order to make it delicious, add garlic and parmesan.

You will need:

• fresh parsley - 1 bunch;
• garlic - 1-2 cloves;
• walnuts - 100 grams;
• parmesan - 50-100 grams;
• olive oil - 5 tablespoons;
• salt and black pepper to taste.

Cooking:

1. First, fry the walnuts in a dry frying pan. Wait until they begin to crackle when frying and crunchy in taste. Don't forget to stir them often.

2. Place clean and dry parsley in a blender. It is best to use only the leaves, without the hard stems.

3. Cut the Parmesan cheese into small cubes to make it easier to chop with a blender.

4. Peel the garlic and cut in half.

5. Put everything in the blender bowl or in a bowl if the blender is submersible. Drizzle with oil, salt, pepper and grind until you get a thick slurry. If it's too thick and doesn't mix well, add more oil.