Pesto - The Sauce of Italy

Traditional pesto is a sauce made from fresh basil, pine nuts or walnuts, garlic, olive oil and parmesan or romano cheese and is used in pastas, grilled meats, and poultry. The ingredients are ground into a paste and moistened with olive oil. For what it's worth, I think that extra-virgin olive oil may be overkill. 'Pure' olive oil—which has little flavor—makes excellent pesto. Suit yourself.

Using Pecorino (romano) cheese and increasing the quantity of garlic yields a more intense, sharply flavored pesto. Some prefer to toast the pine nuts. Walnuts yield a more woodsy flavor. The consistency, thicker or thinner, can be adjusted by varying the quantity of olive oil (or further thinned with a bit of water).

Although prepared pesto is a supermarket item, it's very easy to make your own. The traditional method is to use a mortar and pestle, but a blender or food processor saves time.

Is there a 'best' way to process the ingredients? Some swear that the leaves and garlic must be processed together first, followed by the nuts, then the cheese, and finally the olive oil (or some variation of this). My method is simple and makes excellent pesto, but do as you like. There are no rules.

If you're not using your pesto right away, store it in an airtight container covered with a thin coating of olive oil to keep the sauce from turning dark. Pesto keeps well in the refrigerator for a week or more and can be frozen.

Here are two of my favorite pesto recipes; each makes about 8 oz or 1 cup: