This is a recipe for pesto sauce AKA Genovese-style basil pesto, following the original recipe. As you will know it is a very common recipe in Italy and it is used to season pasta, you can prefer linguine or penne or fusilli, it goes almost with everything. It is a traditional recipe from Liguria, where they say there is the finest species of basil. If you go there on vacation you'll see stores full of small pesto jars and some shopkeepers will give you a spoon of pesto to taste (as if it was ice cream), strangely enough also for me.
I don't buy premade pesto because usually it is too strong and not very easy to digest, so I made my own and I don't put garlic in my pesto because we don't like it in the house (and it's more digestible without it). I usually use basil from my vegetable garden and I am very happy with it. I make the pesto sauce in the summer, I freeze the small jars and they'll last for all the year (this is something Italians do a lot, from marmelade to tomato sauces to pickles to canned fruits).
BE AWARE. Do not switch to other kind of cheeses, if at all you can put 100g of parmigiano instead of 30g of pecorino+70g of parmigiano. Strangely enough you can switch to other veggies (but it won't be the Genoese pesto anymore) : I love zucchini pesto and also broccoli pesto, for examples.
PESTO SAUCE
Ingredients
50 g clean and dry basil
30 g pecorino romano
50 g parmesan cheese (36 months old is better)
60 ml extra virgin olive oil
[1 clove of garlic]
1 pinch coarse salt
1 tablespoon pine nuts
Accessories
Mortar is the better and tastier and ancient and laborious way (of course) but I do use blender (I use the Nutribullet, which is my favorite accessory when it comes to chopping/blending).
Procedure. In the blender, just put in all the ingredients and turn it on. In a few seconds, the pesto is ready.
Storage. The pesto will keep for a few days in the fridge, but I prefer to prepare a larger quantity and put it in jars (I love these) to store in the freezer, so it is always ready when needed.
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