How to cook and what to eat with pesto sauce: a recipe with a photo

The basis of the pesto sauce is basil, which for its magnificent smell and refined taste was given the title of "king of spices". Especially we love basil by Italians, whence, actually, the pesto sauce came to us. Wikipedia calls the birthplace of this appetizer northern Italy and indicates that it was known during the Roman Empire, but the first documentary evidence of this recipe is dated 1865.

Translated from the Italian name of this sauce sounds like "trample, crush, rub." Why this name, it becomes clear by the way it is prepared.

Necessary ingredients:

• leaves of basil - 1 tbsp.
• garlic - 2-3 cloves
• Cedar nuts - 1/3 st.
• Parmesan cheese (grated) - 1/3 tbsp.
• olive oil - 0.5 tbsp.
• salt - to taste.

Cooking method:

1. Clean garlic, wash and crush it with garlic cloves;


2. rinse, dry, and then grind the basil, mix it with garlic and rastolkite in a mortar (can and in a blender) to a homogeneous mass;


3. Parmesan cheese should be grated on a large grater;


4. finely chop the nuts and add to the prepared sauce.

As a result, you will get a thick, viscous, like plasticine, mass. To make it more liquid, you should pour olive oil there in a thin trickle, constantly stirring the pesto sauce. The composition of such a snack can be different. So, you can replace basil with rucola or tarragon (tarhun), and instead of cedar nuts add almonds or Greek.

Pesto sauce, whose classic recipe includes parmesan cheese, usually does not require additional sunflower, because this sort of cheese is quite salty in itself. For cooking, you can use other types of hard cheeses. In this case, you should rely on your own taste, perhaps the sauce will need to be salted.

Storage method

To preserve the pesto sauce for a long time, it is rammed into a dry clean jar and placed in a refrigerator. On top of the tank is recommended to pour olive oil, a ball of 0.5 cm Thanks to such an oil cushion sauce will not dry out, and the intensity of its odor will be reduced. After all, be prepared for the fact that because of the can of sauce your refrigerator will find the smell of an Italian restaurant. Before using the workpiece, first drain the olive oil, take the right amount of sauce, and then refill the oil. Keep the pesto sauce in this way for about two weeks. You can also freeze the sauce in special containers - this is how it is stored for several months.

Pesto sauce: with what to eat?

On the question of what to eat with pesto sauce, there is no single answer. After all, this appetizer is suitable for almost all dishes, especially for those that do not have their distinct taste. Very popular is pasta (pasta) with pesto sauce.

The recipe is also suitable for meat, fish and even as a dressing for vegetable salads. In addition, we offer a list of what is eaten with pesto sauce:

• You can spread the sauce on slices of a toasted baguette or a fresh loaf;
• Grilled or grilled fish, meat or vegetables under pesto;
• sauce can be added to minced meat and made with it cutlets, you can use it in cutlets in Kiev;
• also prepare mashed potatoes with pesto.

In addition, pizza sauce is also added to pizza, risotto and even soups. The caloric content of this billet, of course, is not the lowest. But the amount of nutrients and vitamins is maximum, which makes the sauce very useful. To reduce calories, you can reduce the amount of olive oil and cheese, focusing on nuts and greens.