Pesto? Pronto!

Easy peasy pesto recipes

Flavour by the spoonful.

What exactly is a pesto? Well. In laymen’s terms, it is a concentrated flavour compound that you can add to a dish to enhance flavour. The word “pesto” comes from the Italian word pestare, which means “to crush”.

The most famous pesto by far is the so-called Pesto Genovese. This is a pesto that originated in Genoa in Italy, and it is more commonly known as basil pesto.

Traditionally, pesto Genovese is made in a pestle and mortar.

(But feel free to use an immersion blender)

It is a finely ground and pounded mixture of:

• Fresh basil leaves,
• Roasted pine nuts,
• Fresh garlic
• Finely grated parmesan or matured pecorino
• Olive oil

This quintessentially Italian flavour bomb can be used in any Mediterranean dish, but pairs beautifully with thickly sliced ripe tomato and pulls of Fior di late Mozzarella, to create a classic Caprese salad

Make your own pesto from your garden (and pantry)

Basil pesto

Sweet basil is a happy and rewarding garden herb. With ample sun and water, it quickly grows into a vibrant bush and you can gladly harvest handfuls of fresh leaves to keep up a steady supply of basil pesto. You can plant a pot of basil from seed and within 6 weeks you’ll have your first leaves. See above for an authentic basil pesto recipe.

Rocket pesto

We have lauded the magic of growing your own rocket often. Just like basil, rocket is such a grateful herb, growing in leaps and bounds all through summer. Loved for its peppery, verdant taste, rocket goes exceptionally well with pizza, stirred into vinaigrettes, and as a spread for a lunchbox sandwich when rocket leaves would have wilted. Growing lusciously from seed, simply scatter some around your garden and harvest to your hearts content.

We love this rocket and pistachio pesto from Jamie Oliver and see how he stirs it through pasta for a fragrant and filling meal that won’t break your budget.

Coriander/cilantro pesto

Coriander leaves, or Cilantro as it is also called, is a bit of a Marmite herb…Some people say it tastes like a zesty, lemony parsley, and others only tastes overwhelming soapy decay. If you are one of those people who experiences the zesty taste – good on you. Then you can enjoy a coriander leaf pesto with white meat like chicken or fish, or as part of a chimichurri sauce for steak. We love this recipe by Two Peas and Their Pod:

Fresh, homemade cilantro pesto

While most pesto’s are green, in recent years, there has been a shift towards other pesto’s or so-called “red sauces”.

Sundried tomato pesto

While you can technically grow this one in your garden, it’s a bit labour intensive to grow, harvest, dry and then process sundried tomatoes. If you’re up for it, well done. For the rest of us mere mortals, we’ll start the recipe with store bought tomatoes.

This warm red sauce is so easy to make and can be used as a flavour enhancer in anything from stews, soups and gravies, to pasta’s, salad dressings and you can even spread it on your home-made pizza bases. It follows the same basic recipe as the Pesto Genovese, but you can use roasted and salted cashew nuts to make it much more affordable. We love this authentically mediterranean recipe:

The Mediterranean Dish Sundried tomato pesto

Roasted red pepper pesto

A variation on sundried tomato pesto, which you can use in exactly the same ways, but made with roasted red peppers instead of sundried tomatoes.

We love this recipe by Brunch and Batter.

Mushroom pesto (Trust us!)

Yes. Mushrooms.

Story time: Even though I see myself as a foodie, I did not eat mushrooms until I was deep into my twenties. In fact – the onle reason why is tarted eating them was because of a single line in the movie Julie&Julia wherein a young food blogger, Julie Powell,  decides to cook her way through Julia Child’s famous cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. While struggling through increasingly difficult recipes, Julie comes to an important realisation: Don’t crowd the mushrooms.

Did you know that mushrooms are not supposed to be a soggy grey mess leaking water into everything it comes into contact? Did you know that mushrooms, lovingly fried in small batches in real butter and good olive oil, become wonderful little mouthfuls of intense umami and savoury flavour? If you give them space in the pan, you don’t even need the garlic, lemon and black pepper most South Africans drown their soggy stewed mushrooms in. Now – THESE are the mushrooms I am talking about when I say you should make mushroom pesto.

This is my own recipe and I keep a jar in my fridge at all times:

Slice or halve a couple of punnets of your favourite mushrooms, fry them, without crowding, in a wide pan that won’t allow them to become soggy and slimy.

Take them out, let them cool a little and finely process them with:

• Olive oil,
• Garlic,
• A few springs of fresh parsley
• Some kind of roasted or salted nut ( I love mushrooms and Macadamias)
• Grated pecorino or parmesan.

Use this pesto in anything, or on anything and experience a punchy, umami magic that’s better than the best magic mushroom…

Also read our article on why you should consider going Vegetarian if if just for a wee while.