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(lively music)
(gentle music)
All right, so 99% of the time
when you hear the word pesto,
you think of these five things mashed together:
raw garlic, fresh basil, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese,
garlic, again, come Andy,
and high quality olive oil.
But while not at all traditional,
pesto can be fashioned
from any number of herbs, vegetables, and nuts.
The word pesto itself actually referring
to the act of pounding or crushing,
which is why it's traditionally made with this,
a mortar and pestle,
'cause this thing,
the thing that you use to crush or pound things with.
So let's start with the most traditional version.
We're gonna add one clove of garlic to our mortar
along with a teaspoon of kosher salt
and 30 grams or about a quarter cup of pine nuts.
Now our first step before adding anything else is pounding
and mashing this into a paste.
Making sure that this mixture is nice
and smooth is gonna help us emulsify our sauce later on.
Now we can start adding the green stuff,
in this case fresh basil.
You wanna rinse these guys, pat them dry,
remove all their stems and measure
out an equal amount by weight to your pine nuts.
So about 30 grams worth.
It's not an exact science however,
so just pile in a ton of basil,
more than you think you need,
and commence to pounding and mashing
until you got yourself a nice chunky paste.
Now it's time to add a little splash of olive oil.
Ultimately, we're gonna be adding
about a third of a cup,
but moreover, this is our time to add the cheese,
anywhere from 10 to 30 grams.
I like to imagine that I'm grating
the equivalent of a one inch cube into the mortar.
Now we're gonna go ahead and process that together,
scraping down the sides of the mortar and pestle,
adding little splashes of oil as we go,
ultimately resulting in a textured
but smooth, almost creamy pesto.
If your pesto breaks or becomes oily,
you can always rescue it by blitzing it
in a blender or food processor
with a tablespoon of hot water.
Pesto should also ideally be eaten
immediately after making it.
But if your intention is to store it for later,
it can be accomplished.
Option one is to pour a thin layer
of olive oil over the top of your pesto.
This effectively creates an airtight seal over the basil,
which loves to discolor once it's been chopped and mashed.
Another option is to blanch and shock the basil,
that is drop it into some boiling water
for about five seconds,
just until it starts to wilt and look like spinach.
Fish it out and drop it directly
into some awaiting ice water,
both halting the cooking
and preserving the basil's color and flavor.
We're then gonna dry the basil on some paper towels
to the very best of our ability
before utilizing them in our pesto recipe as desired.
In this case, we're doing the same thing
but this time in a food processor.
Combining our pine nuts, garlic and salt
in the bowl of the mighty machine,
and then blitzing and pulsing together
until a rough paste is formed.
Usually, it takes about 30 seconds.
Once we got our paste, it's time to add the basil.
In this case, I'm gonna use the blanched basil,
which looks like it's not gonna be enough
but it is the same amount by weight.
Then from this point on,
it's pretty much the same procedure,
grating the cheese in there
and slowly drizzling the oil down the feed spout
while the machine is running until the paste becomes less
of a paste and more of a sauce.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Make sure that everybody's good and processed
and adjust as necessary with lots and lots of olive oil.
Pesto usually has a thick, almost spreadable consistency.
Homemade pesto can last four to five days in the fridge,
but with the basil blanching or the layer of oil,
it can easily last one to two weeks.
Although, I should say again emphatically,
it's best enjoyed fresh.
So now let's take a peak at some variations.
We're gonna start with a sundried tomato pesto.
This, instead of pine nuts,
starts with 30 grams of unsalted almonds,
one clove of garlic, and one teaspoon of kosher salt.
Blitz together, this one not so much
into a paste as a mealy kind of almond sand
to which we're gonna add about one cup of rinsed
and dried sundried tomatoes,
a couple loose basil leaves,
and the requisite, Parmesan cheese.
And because things tend to emulsify no matter what
in a blender or food processor,
I'm gonna add all the oil all at once right up front.
Mash go, process until the desired consistency is achieved.
Adjust with oil, salt,
or additional sundried tomatoes if necessary.
Spoon it out into a container,
however messily, and call it a day.
Now, before anybody gets mad at me,
these next few recipes are going to be prefaced
with the emphatic warning:
these are not traditional pestos.
First up a kale and walnut pesto.
All the ratios in these recipes are pretty much the same.
So I got 30 grams of blanched kale, 30 grams of walnuts.
I'm doubling up the garlic
because of how much kale loves garlic,
blitzing that together in a chunky paste,
adding the kale, blitzing that into a less chunky paste,
adding the cheese, in this case, Parmesan and Romano,
and emulsifying together with anywhere
from a quarter to a half a cup of olive oil.
You can also throw some other fresh herbs
in there like parsley or tarragon.
And there you have it, kale pesto,
perfect for your new American restaurant
to be served alongside things
like Marcona almonds and ramps.
Next up, one of the wackier ones, carrot top pesto.
And no, I'm not referring to. (groans)
This is a pesto that finally answers the question,
what the hell do I do with the tops of the carrots
that come with the carrots?
Well, why not make pesto out of them
and with fun things like papitas and cotija cheese?
The result is a nutty, earthy vegetable pesto,
perfect for impressing and, or confusing friends.
Lastly, let's go really crazy
with something like pistachios, garlic,
blanched and shocked sugar snap peas,
a little bit of fresh mint and ricotta salata.
Adjust its taste with salt, pepper and lemon zest.
Here's a pesto that could be used just as easily
as a sauce as it could be for a dip.
So that's how you make pesto. Now, how do you eat it?
Well, the most common and arguably best way is with pasta.
As you can see, I'm cooking mine in the basil
and vegetable blanching water.
Only telling you that
so you're not grossed out by its color.
Cooking the pasta in manufacturer suggested doneness,
reserving at least half a cup of starchy pasta cooking water
and draining the rest,
putting it right back into the hot pan
because the only heat we want touching our pesto
is the residual heat.
So we're gonna add the pesto directly to the drained pasta
along with about a quarter cup of that reserved pasta water
and setting the rest aside in the event of an emergency.
Now we want to agitate the pasta together
with the pesto with great vigor,
emulsifying together the pesto and the pasta cooking water
into an almost creamy sauce.
And now I'm gonna ask any Italians
in the room to please cover your ears because I'm going
to suggest something downright sacrilegious
and that is to finish your pesto pasta with butter,
two tablespoons worth for a pound of pasta like this.
Not only does butter obviously make everything taste better,
it helps stabilize the resulting sauce.
So not only does everything end up thicker and creamier,
it doesn't split into an oily mess
after sitting around for more than 60 seconds.
And I mean, it's hard to argue with the results.
Look at that. Ope, ope, ope, don't look.
Don't look at that. There you go.
Look at that rich creamy sauce clinging
to every square inch of al dente pasta.
This here is our first basil pesto,
but you can use any of the delicious iterations whipped
up today in the same manner.
So as usual, I encourage you to see what's nutty
and herby in your life and mash it together.
You never know what might come out,
probably pesto, hopefully pesto.
Thanks again to SimpliSafe for sponsoring this episode.
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