Pesto Alla Genovese

The basic green of Italian cuisine…

Pesto alla Genovese is the green counterpart to tomato sauce.
Fast, easy and with the right ingredients unbeatable delicious.
This pesto is an example of Italian cuisine, which (mostly) produces incredibly delicious dishes from few and simple ingredients.

If you do it right, you can prepare a meal within 15 minutes that everyone likes.
At least I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t like this pesto.

The traditional pesto was first documented in the mid-19th century in the Liguria region. But it is still much older and goes back – probably – to a herbal sauce from the time of the Romans. It is a very good example that it does not need many ingredients to create an indescribable taste.
The original uses only fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, Parmigiano and Pecorino. If necessary, some salt, depending on how much ripened the Pecorino is that you use.

Ingredients (2 servings):

200 g Pasta
1 bunch of fresh basil
100 ml olive oil (good quality)
20 g pine nuts
1 clove of garlic
20 g Parmigiano
20 g Pecorino

The cheese should be ripened and hard. Of course, this is always true in principle, but here in particular: the olive oil must be of very good quality and the basil must be very fresh. A good olive oil can actually be easily tested. It must not be too oily on the fingers. Even if it is called an oil, rubbing it between two fingers should feel like water rather than oil. If you smell it it should have an intense smell of fresh grass. If you taste it and swallowed it should have on the palate a slight hot taste similar to pepper.

Preparation:

First, a pot of water is heated for the pasta. For every 100g of pasta, add 1 litre of water and as soon as the water starts boiling add another 10g of salt. If you would like to prepare the pesto just like that, e.g. in stock, you can of course save yourself this step.
First of all, the basil is blanched. Bring a pot of water to the boil, briefly dip the basil leaves in it and then rinse in ice water.
Then all ingredients are put together in a blender and pureed.
The pesto is actually already finished.
Now cook the pasta al dente, pour the pesto over it and that’s it!

Tips…

Pesto alla Genovese is a cold pesto, so it is added directly to the pasta and mixed with it. It is not heated additionally before.
The pesto is in principle easy to store. It is best to pour into an empty jam jar and cover it with some olive oil in an airtight manner. Then it can easily be kept for two weeks. You can also freeze it, but you will always lose a little taste.
The part with the blanching is not absolutely necessary. I myself have done it with and without and have not really tasted a difference.
If you want to – some swear by it – you can also pound the ingredients in a mortar instead of a blender. Then add the basil in portions and not all at once. The taste of the basil should then be even more intense, which I can well imagine. Anyway, since I don’t have a mortar (yet) the mixer always had to do the work.