The secret to good pesto is to use the freshest of ingredients. Excellent quality Oil, Basil and Parmesan cheese make a difference. If these ingredients are good the flavour of the pesto is rich, fresh, light and fragrant. Pesto is heavy and it is advised to eat in the right amounts.
Pesto pasta is one of the most delicious things you can eat in Italy. The word pesto comes from the verb pestare, meaning crush together. Pesto is a sauce you get by mixing together various ingredients until you have a smooth paste with which to dress pasta.
You can eat it all over Italy, but it is typical to Liguria. You can even buy it readymade at the supermarket, but the fresh ones are noticeably tastier. It is ideal if you can eat it fresh and in Liguria, where it was created. In all the other cities the quality can differ from the original to the the point that you may be eating something very different from the original recipe.
Pesto is originally made in a stone mortar, where you add basil, pine nuts, garlic, salt, parmesan and pecorino. These ingredients are added and crushed together with a pestle while adding a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil until creamy.
The secret to good pesto is to use the freshest of ingredients. Excellent quality Oil, Basil and Parmesan cheese make a difference. If these ingredients are good the flavour of the pesto is rich, fresh, light and fragrant. Pesto is heavy and it is advised to eat in the right amounts otherwise digestion will be slow.
Pesto is mainly had with long pasta-trenette, a type of narrow flat pasta. This form causes the broadest parts of the pasta to collect more pesto and have a more intense flavor.
Other types of pasta to eat typically with pesto pasta is the trofie, a short thin twisted pasta.
These are typical pesto dishes, but it can be eaten with other types of pastas too.
Pesto is mixed on hot pasta after the hot water it has been cooking in has been drained. If you like you can make the pasta with pesto less dense by adding boiling water to cook. This way, the dough is flavoured with a delicious cream.
Pasta Pesto costs anything from 5 euros to 12 euros per portion.
Making it at home is much more economical. 1 euro per 1 kg of pasta and 3 to 8 euros for a jar of pesto for 3 -5 people.
Buon appetito!!!
