Heaven in 30 minutes: an easy, authentic Italian pesto recipe

Heaven in 30 minutes: an easy, authentic Italian pesto recipe

An authentic pesto is like a little slice of heaven. Once you've had a taste of this thick pasta dressing, there's just nothing quite like it. Usually, the trouble is your pesto experience takes place in an Italian restaurant and you haven't the faintest clue as to how to recreate it in your kitchen. There are now commercially prepared pestos available in the supermarket. Actually, some are quite good, but they just don't hold a candle to a freshly made pesto. The basic flavor is there, but there's something lacking perhaps it's that garden fresh snap of young basil or the nuances you get from freshly grated, aged Parmesan that makes the difference.

In any case, for all you pesto lovers, here's an authentic Italian pesto recipe you can make in about thirty minutes that does an Italian proud. After all, to an Italian, food is art.

While fresh basil from the supermarket works, this pesto recipe is glorified if you have some fresh basil growing in your garden. The most delicately flavored pesto results from using young, rather than mature leaves. Granted, we're nit-picking here, but for a superior pesto, try to get your hands on a plant from which you can pick the youngest leaves, as the essential oils of the plant are most concentrated in the tender leaves of growing basil.

Five ingredients are all you need, as follows:

Italian pesto recipe
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3 medium cloves of (preferably) organically grown garlic
1 cup of fresh young basil leaves
cup pine nuts
2 ounces freshly grated, aged Parmesan (about cup grated)
2-3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

1.Peel the garlic cloves and mince with a sharp knife. You don't need to worry about the uniformity of each piece. A little diversity in size adds complexity to the finished texture. Scrape the garlic mince into a small bowl.

2.Cut the stems from the basil leaves and rinse the leaves well. Drain on paper towels. Chop the basil leaves finely and add to your bowl.

3.Chop the pine nuts finely. Again, you don't need, or want, absolute uniformity of size. Add to your bowl.

4.Use the finest side of the cheese grater to grate the Parmesan. Yes, you guessed it add to the bowl.

5.Use your fingers to toss all the ingredients until well and uniformly blended. You should be able to press the contents of the bowl between your fingers to form a loose ball.

6.Add olive oil to coat the pesto. In addition to adding flavor, you retain the bright green color of the basil. Refrigerate or simply set aside until ready to dress your dish. Hint: the key to heavenly success in this pesto recipe is using it the same day.
All that's left is to cook up a batch of linguine. Salt the pasta water well. Drain the noodles. Give your pesto a last stir to incorporate the olive oil. Toss well with the linguine and serve.

This pesto recipe makes enough to dress four servings of pasta. It's also an excellent spread for garlic bread!

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