Easy Pesto

Pesto is a sauce originating in Genoa located in the southern part of Italy.

The name of the sauce originated from the Genoese word ‘pesta’ which in literal sense means to pound or crush.

This basically refers to the typical idea of using mortar and pestle to crush vegetables/herbs to prepare a sauce.

Conversely, this translation is a bit ambiguous because the making pesto does not require pounding, but it is more of grounding.

There are numerous variations of pesto, but all are in a variety of green shades because of basil being the main ingredient.

Health Facts:

Per serving (as per the above given recipe) of pesto has 199 calories. With super-healthy ingredients including olive oil, garlic, and basil leaves, the sauce is also rich in essential nutrients such as sodium, potassium, protein, vitamin A and C, calcium, iron, magnesium etc.

Ingredients

cup almonds: 1/4

cloves garlic: 3

cups fresh basil leaves: 1 1/2

cup olive oil: 1/2

pinch ground nutmeg: 1

Salt and pepper to taste

How To Make Easy Pesto

The easy pesto recipe is made in a few simple, small steps.

1. Preheat oven to 230 degrees Celsius or 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Put the almonds on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until they are lightly roasted.
3. Combine toasted almonds, garlic, basil, olive oil, nutmeg, salt, and pepper in a pot or the food processer directly.
4. Process in the food processor until a viscous green paste is formed.
5. Add to your pasta and drool over!

Trivia:

Originating in Genoa, the capital city of Liguria, Italy, the sauce named pesto is the past participle of the verb ‘pesta’. It was originally used in the dish pesto alla Genovese.

The sauce is thought to have two ancestors in the olden time that date back to as far as the Roman age (8th century B.C to 5th century A.D). The ancient Romans used a similar paste called moretum.

During middle ages i.e. 5th to 15th B.C, an admired Genoan cuisine was agliata which used the ingredients of pesto.

A collection of poetries called Appendix Vargiana in which authors write on the details of preparation of moretum also talks about the sauce.

In Casaccia’s Italian or Genoese word list/thesaurus whose 2^nd publication dates back to 1876, you can discover:

“Pesto: our own, local word, which has no exact Italian translation, and is a kind of sauce or dressing, made up of basil, or marjoram and parsley , and of garlic and cheese, blended together in the mortar and lengthened with oil and some of the water used to cook the pasta”.