Bright Green Pesto and Its Many Uses
- Total Time
- 10 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2cups tightly packed, fresh basil leaves
- Salt to taste
- 2tablespoons lightly toasted pine nuts or untoasted chopped walnuts
- ⅓cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2garlic cloves, halved, green shoots removed
- ⅓ to ½cup freshly grated Parmesan
Nutritional analysis per serving (1.3333333333333333 servings)
746 calories; 73 grams fat; 15 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 44 grams monounsaturated fat; 11 grams polyunsaturated fat; 5 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 0 grams sugars; 20 grams protein; 552 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Bring a medium-size saucepan full of water to a boil while you rinse basil leaves. Fill a bowl with ice water and place it next to the saucepan with a skimmer close by (a Chinese skimmer is good for this). When water comes to a boil, salt generously and add basil leaves. Push them down into the water with the back of a skimmer to submerge, count to five, then remove immediately with skimmer and transfer to ice water. Drain and squeeze out excess water.
- Step 2
Place pine nuts or walnuts in a food processor and process until finely ground. Add blanched basil and kosher salt to taste (I use ¼ to ½ teaspoon) and process until finely chopped. With machine running, slowly add olive oil and continue to process for a full minute, or until the mix is reduced to a fine purée. Transfer to a bowl. You should have about ½ cup of purée .
- Step 3
When you are ready to use the pesto, purée garlic in a mortar and pestle, or put through a garlic press, and stir into the pesto (or if using a mortar and pestle, add the puréed basil to the mashed garlic in mortar and work garlic and pesto together with pestle). Add Parmesan and stir in. The pesto will condense when you add the cheese, so even though you’ve added a half-cup of cheese to the purée, you will end up with about ⅔ cup of pesto. Follow the instructions in recipes for thinning out with water.
Private Notes
Comments
Blanching basil leaves is crazy. There is a simple way to make and keep pesto bright green: don't use a mortar and pestle. When using a Cuisinart, never chop the basil without some cheese, pine nuts or oil. These ingredients seal the green of the basil in as it chops and coats it. Add less olive oil in the mixture, but store with a layer of olive oil on top of the pesto keeping it anaerobic & green. Pour off oil and use needed amount, returning a layer of oil to store the rest.
I add a small handful of parsley leaves with the basil leaves; it helps to retain the green color.
Use a colander for the blanching -- works like a charm. If we use walnuts, they are great toasted. 1/4 c of evoo is plenty. And works well w/ or w/o the parm.
I have been making pesto with pasta, green beans, and new potatoes for many years using Marcella Hazan's recipe. I decided to try blanching, as my basil plants were mature. Didn't have high hopes when the limp leaves came out of the water. However, I was wrong! Followed this recipe (but added 3 T softened butter at the end, per Marcella). Without knowing I had used a new recipe, my family said it was the best pesto/pasta I had ever made, and it was beautifully green.
This advice to blanch the basil is terrible… it took all the flavor out. Who cares about a “dull color”, I’d rather have that than a dull flavor
I never bother with the blanching. Just toss in the nuts with the garlic. Then the basil leaves. Tastes just as good!
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