Pesto

Pesto is a thick, roughly ground sauce, traditionally served with pasta. It hails from the city of Genoa in the north Italian region of Liguria, where it’s traditionally made with basil, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese. This green pesto is the famous pesto alla Genovese. Over the years, this delicacy has inspired a number of pesto sauces, made with a wide variety of ingredients. The default pesto is still Genovese, though.

Pesto is Italian for pounding or crushing. In this sense, any sauce made by crushing ingredients with a mortar and pestle can be considered a pesto. Traditionally, the green pesto alla Genovese is made by grinding the ingredients together using a mortar and pestle, a technique that releases and melds the different flavours in the sauce in an unparalleled way.

In Italy, the birthplace of pesto, it’s traditionally served with pasta as primo piatto, the “first plate” served after the antipasto and before the secondo or main course. The pasta, preferably freshly made trofie, spaghetti, or other suitable shapes, is tossed with pesto and served warm.

Italian cuisine is all about showcasing a few simple, elegant ingredients that complement and heighten each other. According to this philosophy, the unique marriage of flavours found in pesto should be served without competition on the plate: no tomatoes, salad dressings, or rich cuts of meat. Just fresh pasta, tossed in pesto and served al dente. But of course, Italians have individual tastes, preferences, and favourite ways of eating their pesto.

You might think that the fresh basil in pesto makes it impossible to freeze and defrost for later use. But in fact, pesto is excellent for freezing, which means you can always keep some around for quick and improvised pasta dinners. Pour the sauce in a freezer-safe container and freeze it for up to six months. Or make little pesto cubes in the ice cube tray, for extra handy access. You can defrost the pesto on low heat in the microwave or on the hob and serve up a taste of Italy in minutes.