Pesto: classic recipe with basil

You can make your own recipe for winter basil pesto sauce using inexpensive ingredients. Of course, it will differ from the original Italian, but it will also give any second dish a unique taste and unforgettable aroma. The sauce is believed to have its origins in Genoa and was first described in 1863 by father and son Batta Ratto. But there is information that it was prepared in ancient Rome.

How to make basil pesto

Pesto refers to sauces made from ground ingredients. It is based on green basil of the Genovese variety, pine seeds, olive oil, hard sheep cheese - Parmesan or Pecorino. There are many variations of pesto, differing in additional components. In Italy, the sauce is often made with almonds, fresh and sun-dried tomatoes; in Austria, pumpkin seeds are added. The French love recipes with garlic, the Germans replace basil with wild garlic.In Russia, it is difficult to find pine (Italian pine) seeds; pine nuts are used instead.

But how can pesto be prepared for the winter? It is unlikely that cheese mixed with butter, nuts and herbs will be stored for a long time, although there will be no problems with the other ingredients under proper conditions. It is simply excluded from the recipe and added before serving.

Recipes for pesto sauce with basil for the winter

Of course, when preparing for the winter, basil pesto sauce will be far from the original. But when you get to another country, all national recipes change. Local residents adapt them to their tastes and familiar products.

Classic pesto recipe with basil for the winter

If the sauce does not include Parmesan cheese, it will last for a long time. This recipe for basil pesto for the winter is closest to the classic Italian one. Before serving, add grated sheep cheese and mix well. In the economy version, you can use any hard cheese and any basil.

Ingredients:

• Genovese basil - a large bunch;
• pine nuts – 30 g;
• olive oil – 150 ml;
• lemon juice – 10 ml;
• garlic – 1 large clove;
• salt, pepper - to taste.

Preparation:

1. Basil is thoroughly washed and rinsed with cold water.
2. Squeeze and measure lemon juice.
3. The garlic is freed from scales and cut into several parts for convenience.
4. Place the prepared ingredients and pine nuts into the blender bowl.
5. Grind, add lemon juice and half the olive oil, salt and pepper.
6. Beat thoroughly, adding oil little by little (not all).
7. Place the pesto sauce into small sterile jars.
8. A layer of oil is poured on top for better preservation.
9. Cover with a lid and place in the refrigerator.

As you can see in the photo, pesto with basil according to the classic recipe turns out to be a beautiful pistachio color.

Purple Basil Pesto Recipe

In fact, the color of basil has little impact on the inexperienced taste of a person who is little familiar with the Mediterranean forge. But a resident of Italy will say that purple leaves make the taste more intense and harsh. This pesto will also be slightly sour. But what can you do - if you pour little lemon juice or neglect it altogether, the sauce will not turn out to be a beautiful purple color, but an indistinct brown one.

Ingredients:

• purple basil – 100 g;
• pistachios – 50 g;
• garlic – 2 cloves;
• lemon juice – 1 tbsp. spoon;
• olive oil – 75 ml;
• salt – 0.5 teaspoon.

The amount of olive oil in the recipe is for the sauce only. To fill its surface, you should take an additional portion.

Preparation:

1. First, the pistachios are ground in a blender.
2. Then add basil leaves, washed and separated from the branches, and peeled garlic cut into several pieces.
3. When the mass becomes homogeneous, add salt, lemon juice and a little oil.
4. Continue whisking, adding olive oil little by little.
5. Place the prepared pesto sauce into sterile small containers.
6. Pour a thin layer of olive oil on top, cover with a lid and put in the refrigerator.

Red basil pesto

To make the sauce red, it is not enough to use basil with leaves of that color. Nuts, oil, and other recipe ingredients will make the pesto unattractive. Now, if you add tomatoes, they will acidify the sauce and enhance the color.

Ingredients:

• basil with red leaves – 20 g;
• pine nuts – 3 tbsp. spoons;
• sun-dried tomatoes – 100 g;
• garlic – 2 cloves;
• capers – 1 tbsp. spoon;
• balsamic vinegar – 1 tbsp. spoon;
• olive oil – 100 ml;
• salt.

Preparation:

1. Wash the basil, rinse, tear off the leaves, and place in a blender bowl.
2. Add peeled and cut garlic, nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, capers.
3. Grind, add salt, capers, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
4. Beat until smooth.
5. Sterilize the jar and put pesto sauce with tomatoes and basil in it.
6. Pour a little olive oil on top, close the lid and put it in the refrigerator.

Basil pesto sauce with tomatoes

This sauce will turn out beautiful and tasty. Pepper can be omitted from the recipe.

Ingredients:

• basil – 1 bunch;
• chopped walnuts - 0.3 cups;
• sun-dried tomatoes – 6 pcs.;
• olive oil – 0.3 cups;
• salt – 0.5 teaspoon;
• garlic – 2 cloves;
• ground pepper – 0.25 teaspoon.

Preparation:

1. Wash the basil, pick off the leaves and place in a blender bowl.
2. Add peeled and chopped garlic, nuts and tomatoes to the greens and chop.
3. Add pepper and salt.
4. Beat until smooth, gradually adding oil.
5. Place in a sterile jar.
6. Pour a little oil on top, close, and put in the refrigerator.

Pesto with walnuts and basil

This sauce is often prepared by residents of regions where it is impossible to get pine seeds and pine nuts are very expensive.Thanks to the large number of walnuts, the pesto becomes similar to pkhali, in which basil was used instead of cilantro. In any case, the sauce turns out very tasty.

Ingredients:

• green basil – 100 leaves;
• walnut – 50 g;
• olive oil – 100 ml;
• lemon juice – 1 tbsp. spoon;
• mint – 10 leaves;
• garlic – 1-2 cloves;
• salt.

Preparation:

1. Basil and mint are washed and the leaves are picked off.
2. The nuts are crushed with a rolling pin so that they can be easily crushed with a blender.
3. Squeeze juice from lemon.
4. The garlic is peeled and cut into several pieces.
5. Place basil, mint, nuts and garlic in a blender bowl and chop.
6. Add salt and lemon juice, stir, gradually pouring in olive oil.
7. Place the pesto sauce in a sterile jar.
8. The top layer is poured with a small amount of oil, closed, and put in the refrigerator.

Pesto with parsley and basil

This recipe makes a bright green pesto sauce. It usually turns out olive-y because basil leaves become dull after processing. Here, thanks to parsley juice, the color is preserved.

Since the recipe contains a lot of greens, it will not be stored for long even in the refrigerator. But the pesto can be put in the freezer. It will stay there for several months, even if you add the cheese right away. These recipes are called cryo, and they are rarely prepared simply because there is always not enough space in the freezers.

Ingredients:

• green basil – 2 bunches;
• parsley – 1 bunch;
• pine nuts – 60 g;
• garlic – 4 cloves;
• Parmesan cheese – 40 g;
• padano cheese – 40 g;
• olive oil – 150 g;
• salt.

The relatively small amount of olive oil (compared to other recipes) is due to the fact that the pesto will be frozen rather than sitting in the refrigerator.If you replace hard sheep cheese with regular cheese, the sauce will be completely different, but still tasty.

Preparation:

1. The greens are washed thoroughly.
2. The leaves of the basil are torn off, and the thick stems of the parsley are trimmed.
3. Place in a blender bowl and grind.
4. Add peeled garlic, pine nuts, and grated cheese.
5. Beat, gradually adding olive oil, until it reaches a paste-like consistency.
6. Place in portions in small bowls or plastic bags and place in the freezer.

Recipe for pesto sauce with basil and arugula

Seemingly cooked with arugula The sauce contains too many herbs to keep for long. But indau contains mustard oil, which has preservative properties. The taste of pesto with arugula is piquant, with a pronounced pleasant bitterness.

Ingredients:

• basil – 1 bunch;
• arugula – 1 bunch;
• pine nuts – 60 g;
• garlic – 2 cloves;
• olive oil – 150 ml;
• salt.

Preparation:

1. Wash the greens and tear off the leaves of the basil.
2. Peel the garlic and cut into several pieces.
3. Place all ingredients except salt and olive oil in the bowl of a blender and grind.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until smooth.
5. Place the pesto sauce in a sterile jar, close it, and refrigerate.

Useful tips and notes

When preparing pesto for the winter according to different recipes, housewives may find the following information useful:

1. If you pour a lot of olive oil into the sauce, it will turn out liquid, but if you add too little, it will become thick.
2. The taste of pesto depends greatly on the nuts used in the recipe.
3. No cheese is added to shelf-stable sauce.But it happens that the housewife prepared a lot of pesto, or accidentally put Parmesan in the winter preparation. What to do? Pack into portioned bags and place in the freezer.
4. With green basil, the pesto will have a milder taste and aroma than if you add red or purple leaves.
5. To keep winter sauce better, add a little more garlic and acid (if the recipe calls for it) than regular sauce.
6. To preserve the color, it is common to add lemon juice to purple basil pesto. To preserve and enhance the red color, the sauce is made with tomatoes.
7. The more olive oil, salt and garlic you add to the pesto, the longer it will last.
8. It is better to add not fresh tomatoes to winter sauce, but sun-dried ones or tomato paste.
9. Only basil leaves can be added to pesto. Crushed stems will cause the sauce to lose its delicate consistency and become bitter.
10. When sun-dried tomatoes are present in a recipe, it always means small cherry tomatoes, not large fruits.
11. A sprig of basil of the “right” size has about 10 leaves, each of which weighs about 0.5 g.
12. All pesto recipes are approximate and initially allow liberties. Here you don’t need to measure the ingredients to 1 g or ml, and if you take a few less or more basil leaves, nothing bad will happen.
13. Those who like to do everything according to the rules and have enough time for this can replace the blender with a mortar and grind the ingredients of recipes manually.
14. When preparing large quantities of pesto, you can use a meat grinder instead of a blender.
15. For a sauce that is supposed to be stored for a long time, you should use only fresh, and not “reanimated” greens.
16. The approximate volume of 50 g of grated hard goat cheese is a glass.
17. If you roast the nuts when making pesto, the taste will change for the better, but the shelf life will be shortened.

What to eat with basil pesto sauce

Pesto is one of the most famous and widespread sauces. The recipe initially allows for liberties; not only the consistency of the product, but also what it is customary to eat it with depends on the ingredients. But this, as they say, is a matter of taste.

Pesto sauce can be added:

• in any pasta (pasta);
• for cheese slices;
• when baking fish, and it is believed that cod and salmon harmonize best with pesto;
• for preparing all types of sandwiches;
• add pesto to potato, carrot and pumpkin soups;
• for marinating and baking (including grilling) poultry, lamb, pork;
• pesto with tomatoes goes well with eggplant;
• for dry-cured pork;
• pesto is poured over mozzarella appetizer and tomato;
• used to prepare other sauces;
• when baking potatoes, mushrooms;
• sauce is an indispensable ingredient when preparing minestrone and avocado cream soup.

Terms and conditions of storage

It is believed that the “correct” pesto sauce should only be fresh. But Italians and residents of other southern regions can afford such luxury. In Russia, most of the year, greens cost so much that you don’t want any sauce, and you can cook something tasty from something grown on a windowsill only for a holiday.

Sometimes there is a statement that pesto with cheese can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. It is not true. The sauce may seem good, but it already contains certain chemical processes that can harm the body.

Shelf life of pesto with cheese:

• in the refrigerator – 5 days;
• in the freezer – 1 month.

If you prepare the sauce without cheese, put it in sterile jars in small containers, and pour olive oil on top, it will be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 months. But only if the oil layer is preserved! If it dries out or is damaged, the pesto will have to be thrown away to avoid harm to health. Therefore, it is recommended to pack the sauce in small containers - you will have to eat it within 5 days maximum after opening the jar.

Pesto without cheese will keep in the freezer for up to 6 months. But you should remember that you need to eat it a day before. The sauce cannot be re-frozen.

Conclusion

The recipe for pesto sauce for the winter from basil is easy to prepare, especially since it allows such liberties that you can make both an economical option and an expensive seasoning for the holiday table. Of course, after freezing all products change their taste. But pesto is still a great addition to boring pasta and adds variety to other dishes.

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