Pesto Sauce

Regarded as the classical summer recipe, Pesto sauce is one of the broadly used dips to with various snacks and dishes. Pesto sauce is a simple sauce to make that hardly ever goes wrong. It has basic ingredients blended thoroughly together. The best thing about pesto is that you can add any variation to the simple recipe as per availability and enjoy this sapid sauce with different curries and snacks all year around.

Health Benefits

• Made with basil, olive oil, garlic, cheese and pine nuts, pesto entails all healthy ingredients that are beneficial for the human body and fulfill the healthy diet requirements.
• The unsaturated fats in the sauce make it favorable for improving cholesterol conditions.
• Pesto is effective in reducing inflammation in the body. Lower inflammation diminishes risks pertaining to heart diseases, diabetes, cancer and other diseases associated with aging.
• Moderate usage of pesto can contribute excessively to a healthy diet.

Ingredients

cup of pine nuts: 1/2

cloves of garlic: 3-4

cup of fresh basil leaves: 1/2

cup of parmesan (freshly grated): 1/2

cup of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil: 1/2

teaspoon of salt or to taste: 1/2

teaspoon of black pepper (freshly grounded) or as per taste: 1/2

How To Make Pesto Sauce

• Mix fresh leaves of basil, pine nuts, garlic cloves, and cheese.
• Blend this mixture using a blender or food processor until.
• Gently add oil to the mixture while it's blending.
• Add salt and pepper.
• Keep scraping down the sides of the blender to have all the ingredients uniformly blended.
• Let the mixture blend until a homogeneous sauce is achieved.
• Serve immediately.

To Preserve

• To preserve the pesto sauce for a longer period, pour the sauce into a sealed container and refrigerate.
• A refrigerated pesto sauce can be used for as long as three days.
• To preserve the sauce for longer, add a small layer of olive oil on the top to refrain air from entering the sauce.
• Pesto sauce can also be preserved through freezing and their life can be extended considerably. 

Trivia

• Pesto is a Genoese word that means to pound or to crush. It denotes the original method utilized in making the sauce.
• “Genoese Cooking,” written by Gio Battista Ratto and her son, Giovanni, is the first book that mentions the recipe for pesto sauce. This book was published in Genoa in 1863.
• The original recipe for the sauce entails usage of Edam cheese or Gouda which was popular in Genoa at the time.
• About pesto, it is said by Rosso that you have to be born in the right place to make the right pesto sauce. Rosso was the waiter and then partner of the Trattoria Monterosa.