Does YouTube need another pesto video? For the last 10 years, I thought “no.” In
fact I was so adamant about it that 6 years ago, I made a pesto video as a parody on other
channels. Hold it with the hate mail. I actually like some of those channels, but I won’t
tell you which ones so that I don’t single anybody out.
Yet here I am making a pesto video. This time it’s for real. I promise no funny business.
Here is what made me change my mind. There is a whole
mystique around pesto. I don’t know why. Even perfectly reasonable people like Daniel
Gritzer from seriouseats.com suggest that the best way to make it is to invest in a
marble mortar and wooden pestle on etsy for a bargain price of $180. My favorite scene
from Samin Nostrat’s “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” netflix series is when she is talking
to an Ligurian Grandma while she is pounding basil in a mortar and asks if her kids and
grandkids use a mortar to make their pesto, and the Grandma says, no.
Ok, so let me get this straight. People who live in Liguria, the birthplace of pesto,
who have eaten the best pesto in the world, who have access to the best basil and olive
oil for the job, don’t feel that the mortar is worth it, but we with our American supermarket
basil should use it? Oh, come on. If it brings you joy to spend 30 minutes making pesto,
or if the esthetic of a marble mortar brings you joy, go for it. Yes, the process will
be very aromatic for the person making it, but is there a much faster and cheaper way
to arrive at the same result? There sure is.
So there is this theory that without mortar and pestle your pesto will be less aromatic
and less creamy. Cook’s illustration has come up with a clever trick of putting basil
into a zip lock bag and pounding it with a meat hammer to get it to release it’s aroma
before making pesto. I tried that. I took some basil leaves, pounded them with a meat
hammer and then chopped them up finely with a knife. Yes, during the pounding, they did
smell very basily. I took another bunch of leaves and simply chopped them up. I let each
bunch sit in a covered container for 20 minutes. Then I opened the containers and smelled the
basil. There wasn’t much difference to me. Though keep in mind that smell is very subjective
and it’s possible that my nose isn’t sensitive enough.
What makes a huge difference is the basil and the oil. Ligurian basil is not really
comparable to what we get in Massachusetts. Even if you grow your own basil and plant
the ligurian variety, the soil is different and the results it produces are different.
Ligurian basil is a lot sweeter and Ligurian olive oil is very mild and buttery. Most extra
virgin olive oils sold in the US are very grassy and aggressive. That’s the real difference.
Not the mortar and pestle.
Ok, so where does this leave us? Does this mean that any attempt at pesto outside of
Liguria is hopeless. Of course not. Just because your pesto will taste a little different from
the real Ligurian one, doesn’t mean it’s not delicious. Here is my quick and easy and
totally practical guide to herb sauces for normal people. Let’s first make pesto and
then I’ll tell you about infinite variations you can make using this principle.
This is the first time in my life that I am measuring things for pesto. You don’t need
to measure if you are comfortable improvising in the kitchen. But if you are measuring,
let’s have the measurements mean something. A cup of basil is not a measurement. A cup
of parmesan cheese is also not a measurement because it depends on which grater you use
and how much you compressed it. So yes, I’ll be using a scale so that I can give you an
accurate recipe for those who want it.
We’ll need 60 grams of basil leaves. If you are shopping for basil in the US, and
buy a 4 oz box of basil, that will yield about 60 grams of leaves. Dump them into the food
processor (though a blender would work as well). Then add ½ tsp of Diamond Crystal
Kosher salt (for other salts, reduce to ¼ tsp). 30 grams of pine nuts. I tried pesto
with toasted and untoasted pine nuts and didn’t taste any difference, so I don’t toast mine.
The only really unusual ingredient in my pesto is lemon zest and lemon juice. The zest is
for aroma. I think basil and lemon smell very good together, but you are welcome to skip
it. I want basil to dominate, so I’ll only zest half a lemon and squeeze a couple of
teaspoons of juice. Lemon juice accomplishes 2 things. It adds acidity and slows down browning.
Normally, pesto gets its acidity from pecorino romano, which is a very salty, tangy, sheep
milk cheese. Although I always have parm on hand, I don’t always have pecorino. So one
time I tried lemon juice and it worked so well, it became a required ingredient in my
pesto.
While we are on the cutting board, let’s also slice 1 garlic clove. A little one. I
hear a lot from my students that there is no such thing as too much garlic. Cooked garlic,
maybe, but raw garlic? No way. There is definitely such a thing as too much raw garlic. I’ll
also slice a little parmesan cheese. You can also grate it, but if it’s sliced thin,
the food processor will do the rest. Just like with garlic, don’t get carried away
with cheese. I’ve had too many pesto versions in the US that taste like a cheesy, greasy,
stinky garlic mess. Pesto is a basil sauce, not a cheese sauce. Ok, so in go our lemon
zest, juice, garlic and cheese. Let’s give it all a buzz. Scrape it down a few times
and puree until you get something that looks like this.
Keep the processor running and pour ¼ cup of your favorite olive oil through a feed
tube or enough to form a thick paste. The next ingredient is what will take your pesto
from good to spectacular. I wish I could take credit for it, but I learned this trick while
visiting Liguria. Can you guess what it is? Oh, come on. It’s the way I solve pretty
much all problems in the kitchen. Butter. Take 2 Tbsp of room temperature butter, break
it up into pieces and add to your pesto. If you don’t want to use butter, you can add
more olive oil. And buzz it all together. Taste and correct for salt. Bland pesto is
a bad pesto. Here you go -- thick, creamy, and addictively delicious results guaranteed.
But hey, if you feel that it’s cheating, there is always a $180 mortar and pestle and
old fashioned elbow grease.
To store pesto, put it into a jar that is more tall than wide. We want to minimize contact
with air since that’s what makes basil discolor. If you are serving it within an hour, leave
it at room temperature. Otherwise, press a piece of plastic wrap into the top of pesto,
cover it with a lid and put in the fridge. This will completely eliminate discoloration.
Alternatively, you can pour enough oil to cover the top, but that will change the consistency
of your pesto. Depending on how long you keep it in the fridge, it might solidify. Here
is my pesto on the second day. Don’t panic. It’s all good. Set the jar into a bowl of
warm, but not hot water and give it a few stirs until butter and oil loosen up. This
usually takes me about 15 minutes and our pesto is back. Just as creamy and vibrant
as it was yesterday.
Now that you know how to make pesto, you know how to make all herbal sauces, so don’t
be afraid to improvise and use what you have on hand. Pretty much every mediterranean country
has a similar sauce. In the Basque country I had a delicious sauce made with parsley,
lemon, and walnuts. In Italy, I had salsa verde made with parsley, capers and anchovies.
In Greece, bread crumbs are used for thickening instead of nuts. A Cambridge restaurant I
used to work for very long ago, called Casablanca, used to make a lovely mint pistachio pesto.
I am sure after you make some herbal sauce, you’ll just be able to eyeball your ingredients,
but if you want measurements, you can always start with the ones I gave you in this video
even though you’ll be using parsley instead of basil and walnuts instead of pine nuts
and anchovies instead of parmesan.
Another tip on making herb sauces is that they work best in relatively large amounts.
You’ll get better consistency if you chop up everything first and then gradually add
the oil. But that requires having a good bit of herb. If you don’t have enough and the
processor is having a hard time working with your little batch, go ahead and put the oil
in from the very beginning. The consistency might not be as creamy, but the sauce will
still be tasty.
Have fun and I’ll see you next time.
Here are more culinary tutorials for you to check out and if you are ever in the Boston
area, maybe I’ll see you in one of my classes.