Pesto Oil Food

PESTO

Steps:

• Preheat small skillet over medium high heat (no oil). Add pine nuts and toast until light brown. Immediately remove and let cool slightly.
• Place all ingredients except olive oil in a food processor or blender.
• Blitz until finely chopped.
• With the motor running, slowly pour the oil in. Blitz until smooth (or to desired consistency), adding a touch of extra oil (or water) if required to help it blitz.
• Handheld blender: Place all ingredients (including oil) in a bowl. Blitz with hand held blender until smooth.

PESTO

Steps:

• Peel the garlic, then pound in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of sea salt.
• Pick, roughly chop and add the basil leaves, then bash to a paste (or pulse in a food processor).
• Add the pine nuts (very lightly toast first, if you like) to the mixture and pound again, then stir in half the Parmesan.
• Drizzle in some oil - you need just enough to bind the sauce and get it to an oozy consistency.
• Add most of the remaining cheese, then season to perfection with salt and black pepper. Have a taste, and keep adding a bit more cheese or oil until you are happy with the taste and consistency.
• Add a squeeze of lemon juice at the end to give it a little twang, if you like, but it's not essential.

PESTO PASTA

Steps:

• Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling water until done. Drain.
• Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan over medium low heat. Add pesto, onion, and salt and pepper. Cook about five minutes, or until onions are soft.
• In a large bowl, mix pesto mixture into pasta. Stir in grated cheese. Serve.

HOW TO MAKE PESTO LIKE AN ITALIAN GRANDMOTHER

Steps:

• Start chopping the garlic along with about 1/3 of the basil leaves. Once this is loosely chopped add more basil, chop some more, add the rest of the basil, chop some more. I scrape and chop, gather and chop. At this point the basil and garlic should be a very fine mince. Add about half the pine nuts, chop. Add the rest of the pine nuts, chop. Add half of the Parmesan, chop. Add the rest of the Parmesan, and chop. In the end you want a chop so fine that you can press all the ingredients into a basil "cake" - see the photo up above. Transfer the pesto "cake" to a small bowl (not much bigger than the cake).
• Cover the pesto "cake" with a bit of olive oil. It doesn't take much, just a few tablespoons. At this point, you can set the pesto aside, or place it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. Just before serving, give the pesto a quick stir to incorporate some of the oil into the basil. Francesca's mom occasionally thins the pesto with a splash of pasta water for more coverage, but for our gnocchi this wasn't necessary.

PESTO GENOVESE | AUTHENTIC ITALIAN BASIL PESTO

Steps:

• Wash and dry the basil leaves very well on a kitchen towel. Place them in a food processor with garlic, pine nuts and grated Parmigiano. Chop coarsely for a few seconds then add salt and Pecorino Fiore Sardo cheese cut into small pieces. Blend all the ingredients for about 1 minute.
• Add extra virgin olive oil. Blend for about 5 minutes, until you'll get a creamy green pesto sauce. Pesto must not heat up, so be careful to work quickly, using the food processor at minimum speed and at intervals, that is, blend a few seconds, stop and start again.
• Before seasoning your pasta dish, if the basil pesto is too thick, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of the cooking water; this way you'll have a warm homogeneous soft pesto sauce.

JUICY PESTO PASTA!

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to the boil with the salt.
• Add pasta and cook for the length of time per the packet.
• Just before draining, scoop out 1 cup of of the pasta cooking water.
• Drain pasta in a colander, leave it for a minute.
• Transfer pasta to a bowl (do not use pasta cooking pot, too hot).
• Add pesto and 1/4 cup of pasta water. Toss to coat pasta in pesto, adding more water if required to make pasta silky and saucy, rather than dry and sticky.
• Taste, add more salt and pepper if desired.
• Serve immediately, garnished with fresh parmesan.

BASIL PESTO

Steps:

• Combine basil, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and olive oil in a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add garlic, pine nuts, salt, and pepper. Pulse until mixture becomes smooth and blended.
• Pour mixture onto a large sheet of plastic wrap; roll into a tube shape and seal. Store in the refrigerator until needed.

THE BEST BASIL PESTO

Steps:

• Peel and bash the garlic in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of sea salt.
• Pick the basil leaves and add with the pine nuts, and pound to a coarse paste.
• Muddle in the extra virgin olive oil and finely grate and stir in the Parmesan, adding a splash of water if you like it a little runnier, then continue bashing and pounding until smooth.
• Have a taste and season with salt and black pepper, if needed. For a lovely creamy finish, try crumbling in and stirring through a cooked Jersey Royal. Serve with grilled meat or fish, or simply stirred through pasta - delicious!

BASIC PESTO

Steps:

• Combine basil leaves, pine nuts or walnuts and garlic in a food processor and process until very finely minced.
• With the machine running slowly dribble in the oil and process until the mixture is smooth.
• Add the cheese and process very briefly, just long enough to combine. Store in refrigerator or freezer.

BASIL PESTO

Steps:

• Combine the basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add 1/2 cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
• If using immediately, add all the remaining oil and pulse until smooth. Transfer the pesto to a large serving bowl and mix in the cheese.
• If freezing, transfer to an air-tight container and drizzle remaining oil over the top. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and stir in cheese.

PESTO

Steps:

• Combine basil, garlic, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, and nuts in the bowl of a food processor or blender. Blend to a smooth paste. Add parsley if desired.

PESTO

Steps:

• Place the walnuts, pignolis, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process for 15 seconds. Add the basil leaves, salt, and pepper. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube and process until the pesto is thoroughly pureed. Add the Parmesan and puree for a minute. Use right away or store the pesto in the refrigerator or freezer with a thin film of olive oil on top.

CLASSIC PESTO

Steps:

• Heat a small frying pan over a low heat. Cook the pine nuts until golden, shaking occasionally. Put into a food processor with the basil, parmesan, olive oil and garlic cloves. Whizz until smooth, then season to taste.

NUT FREE BASIL PESTO WITH LEMON [NO OIL]

Steps:

• Add all the ingredients except the water to a food processor or blender. Process until smooth and scrape down the sides as needed.
• Add 1 tablespoon of water at a time, as needed to reach desired consistency.

PESTO OIL

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300°F.
• In a 1-cup metal measure or very small metal bowl combine all ingredients. Set measuring cup or bowl on a baking sheet and cook in lower third of oven 1 hour. Cool on a rack 30 minutes.
• Line a small strainer with several layers of cheesecloth and strain oil into a glass jar. Flavored oil keeps, covered loosely and refrigerated at all times, 1 month.