Homemade pesto recipes

The pesto sauce is one of the best-known and most popular sauces in Italian cuisine, which due to its multiple uses and possible combinations has become popular around the world.

You can find pesto sauce in all major supermarkets, but the truth be told: nothing beats homemade pesto. Believe me, making a fresh pesto sauce is very easy, and it has no rival.

The only thing you need to make a good pesto is olive oil, pine nuts, basil, garlic and Parmesan cheese. You can take advantage of when you make it to prepare a larger batch, and store it in the fridge for 3 or 4 days or freeze it, taking out spoonfuls and thawing one each day you need it.

TIP! You can freeze sauces in an ice cube tray with lid, and each time you want to use some you'll take out the cubes you need at that moment.

Although traditional pesto is delicious, you can make some delicious variations. That's what this post is about today: I leave you with several delicious recipes for different pestos you can make at home.

For this, you can use the Ingenio Tefal manual chopper.

How to use pesto sauce?

You can use traditional pesto or the pestos you'll see below in many ways:

• As a snack: leave the jar next to some croutons or toasted bread, it's a great combination.
• With pasta, it's a classic among classics.
• With fish: despite the intensity of pesto it doesn't have to mask how delicious the fish is if you moderate its use. On the contrary, with the right amount fish with pesto is delicious.
• With meats, the sun-dried tomato pesto you'll find below is especially delicious with meat on the grill.
• With roasted vegetables
• On pizzas, you'll see how the flavor is enhanced if you put a little pesto as the pizza base or on top at the end of cooking.
• To make breads and focaccias: incorporate pesto into the dough of your breads and you'll make very tasty breads (also in onion breads or olive breads, if you choose the right accompaniments they'll be excellent breads).

Pesto recipes

Arugula and walnut pesto

Ingredients

• 50 g of arugula
• 1 clove of garlic
• 25 g of grated Parmesan cheese
• 25 g of toasted walnuts
• 200 ml of olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC and toast the walnuts on a small baking tray for 10 minutes until they are golden and let them cool.
2. Peel the garlic and put it in the Ingenio Tefal manual chopper and pulse for about 5 seconds. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse for about 10 more seconds.
3. Season with salt and pepper to taste and store in a glass jar in the refrigerator.

Basil pesto

Ingredients

• 50 g of basil
• 1 clove of garlic
• 30 g of grated Parmesan cheese
• 30 g of pine nuts
• 175 ml of extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC and toast the pine nuts on a tray for 10 minutes until they are golden and let them cool.
2. Peel the garlic and put it in the Ingenio Tefal manual chopper and pulse for about 5 seconds.
3. Add the basil and garlic to the chopper and pulse for 3 more seconds.
4. Place the rest of the ingredients in the chopper and blend for about 10 seconds.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste and store in a glass jar in the refrigerator (or you can put it in the ice cube tray to freeze and consume little by little whenever you need it)

Sun-dried tomato pesto

Ingredients

• 100 g of sun-dried tomatoes (or tomatoes preserved dry in oil)
• 25 g of basil
• 1 clove of garlic
• 25 g of grated Parmesan cheese
• 30 g of toasted almonds
• 200 ml of extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC and toast the almonds on a tray for 10 minutes until they are golden and let them cool.
2. Peel the garlic clove and pulse for 5 seconds with the Ingenio Tefal manual chopper, add the sun-dried tomatoes and pulse for 10 more seconds.
3. Add the basil and all the other ingredients to the chopper and pulse for about 10 seconds.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste and store in an airtight jar in the refrigerator.