Basil pesto alla Genovese | knife or mortar & pestle method
672,977
Published 2021-07-29
**RECIPE**
By weight: 1 part garlic + 2 parts nuts + 2 parts hard cheese + 5 parts basil + pinch of salt + enough olive oil to make it saucy
For a single portion:
1 garlic clove (5g), peeled
1 handful (10g) pine nuts (or any other nut)
1 handful (10g) grated pecorino or parmesan cheese
1 big bunch (25g) fresh basil leaves
pinch of salt
pinch of sugar (not traditional but I think it's nice)
good olive oil
pasta (1/4 lb, 113g is a generous single portion)
Start boiling your pasta in salted water before you make the pesto.
If using a knife or a food processor, chop up the garlic clove then start chopping it into the nuts. When you've done about all you can do, start chopping in the basil leaves and then the cheese. When you've chopped everything as fine as possible, sprinkle over a pinch of coarse salt (and sugar, if using) and then grind the mixture into your cutting board with the side of your knife. Try to get the smoothest paste you can.
If using a mortar & pestle, put in the garlic clove along with a pinch of coarse salt (and sugar, if using) and grind until virtually liquified. Grind in the nuts until smooth. I think it's easier to chop the basil up with a knife first before grinding it in, along with the cheese. I also find it helps to switch from a stone pestle at this stage to a wooden spoon for the last bit of grinding.
Stir in enough olive oil to get a thick, saucy consistency. Drain the pasta, reserving a little bit of the starchy water to mix into the sauce. Stir in the pesto and adjust the consistency with pasta water and/or more olive oil.
NOTE: If you want your pesto to stay green permanently, dump it in the boil water before you do anything else. Stir it in there for 10 seconds, then immediately remove it to a bowl of ice water. Squeeze it dry and chop it as fine as possible. Then boil your pasta and do everything else.
All Comments (21)
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Fun fact: pasta al pesto is the main "university food" here in Italy because pesto jars are sooo economic and last a lot and well we can't really run out of dry pasta.
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Adam stopped breaking his pasta in half. Turns out someone did call the Pasta Police lol.
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the first time I had pesto it was amazingly delicious, but that was also how I found out I'm allergic to pine nuts
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This video made me realize that there's two different Ragusea's. One who speaks very clearly as a teacher, and one who speaks moreso as a learner. A lot of older videos had a clear Teacher Mode vibe, because they were just recipes he has done multiple times and is well versed in. Whereas a lot of newer videos are unconsciously from the "I am just telling you about this thing I'm not super familiar with" vibe. This one made me notice it because he so clearly is speaking with experience, no doubt given his Italian background. I love both Ragusea's, and I imagine it's much more difficult to make teacher-mode videos, but I do prefer ones where he has clear authority, cuz I love how he explains things!
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3:09 "Tell Bespoke Post what you're into" clicks men
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Personally, I swear by a few drops of fresh lemon juice to keep my Pesto green longer, and the slight flavor really compliments it as well. It's an easier way to stabilize the color. And if you really want to super-charge the green color, use about 10 - 20% baby spinach mixed with the basil. It adds a lot of vitamins, too!
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"Look at how homogenous the color is" Things I never expected Adam to ever say lol
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Honestly I really do appreciate Adam's thought process when filming a video, not only do you get a very easy to follow tutorial, the background information almost feels like a mini crash course in food science (I for one love that, as a pharmsci major), which helps people understand not only what goes into dishes, but also WHY it does. To me that is one of the best things a cook could understand and what many food youtubers miss out.
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I’m kind of disappointed that this isn’t a stone crab recipe🤣😂
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My Dad has made pesto this way my whole life (without blanching). He would always make huge batches too because it was my favorite and easy to heat up for leftovers. Maybe I am color blind or something but I never noticed the "browning" before. It just looks darker green to me and always tasted the same (to me anyway). Great video I need to make some pesto now, lol
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I literally asked for pesto 2 days ago, as I really got into pesto recently, and what a coincidence, Adam made pesto.
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the thing i love about adam is that he lets us know that the ingredients are base, but the ratios are to HIS taste, so you might need to adjust. he's a real class act.
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I love pine nuts, so when I make pesto, I also leave some of them intact in order to feel the crunch & taste them outright. Not too many, of course. Just a few. To die for. Your hint to blanche the basil was way cool. Thanks!
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Adam: one garlic clove per person Me: start with three and maybe crank it up a notch
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Pesto is probably one of my favourite foods of all time. We used to make it all the time when we grew basil in our garden. I haven't grown basil in years, so I miss fresh pesto so much. I wish science could come up with a way to make jarred pesto that isn't yucky. I still buy it because it's better than nothing (barely) and helps to ease the craving for pesto. But I swear the jarred pesto is like 90% salt and 10% unknown brown stuff.
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As a kid this was one of my favorite dishes. My grandmother made it with a knife and never used nuts. She also ALWAYS used fusilli, not the short spirals but the long corkscrew type. It still tastes better on that shape to me. Thanks for sharing this version. I'm going to have to try it!
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Hope I wasn’t the only one who assumed it would be a crab recipe
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My favourite dish of all time is my moms pesto. She doesn't add pine nuts and usually waits for the pasta to cool a bit so the cheese doesn't melt. I would eat that for the rest of my life if I could
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Another tip for keeping your pesto green, a squeeze of lemon juice! Keeps the pesto green for days if you have any leftover. (Also pesto done with toasted sesame seeds instead of pine nuts is lush!)
