Basil Pesto

[Rich G]

Basil Pesto

60g basil leaves
1/2 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (or 1/4 tsp table salt), plus more to taste
30g pine nuts (1/4 cup)
5g lemon juice (2 tsp)
1 small garlic clove
22g parmesan cheese, very thinly sliced or grated
53g extra virgin olive oil (1/4 c)
28g room temperature unsalted butter (2 Tbsp)

Process all ingredients except for oil and butter in a food processor, scraping down the bowl a few times. With the processor running, pour in the oil through a feed tube and process until incorporated. Scrape down the sides, add the butter in small pieces and process until homogeneous. Taste and correct for salt. Store in the fridge for up to 2 days with a piece of plastic pressed into the top to prevent discoloration. If refrigerating, bring to room temp in a bowl of warm water, stirring occasionally until the pesto loosens up.

I think I originally found this recipe online (maybe Epicurious.com), but I've made a few modifications along the way, so, at best it's "based on" someone else's recipe.

 

[Rich G]

Probably worth adding to this post that this amount of pesto is just about perfect with 1lb of fresh pasta (fettuccine is my preference, the Genovese prefer trenette, which is about the width of linguine but a bit fatter.)

 

[BillSmith]

I wonder if there's a way to store it longer in the fridge without discoloration? Those pesto packages you buy from the supermarket are able to do that. I wonder what they add to the ingredients to enable this?

 

[Rich G]

Bill, I've only made enough that I needed to save it once, and I froze it.....worked beautifully!

If I'm keeping it in the fridge (probably a week is the max), I make sure to press some cling film tightly onto the surface of the pesto to reduce contact with oxygen as much as possible. This seems to keep the pesto nice and green for the time that I have it in the fridge.

Not sure what they put in supermarket pesto to keep it green.

R

 

[Darren Lebner]

Try freezing them in an ice cube tray.