Basil Pesto Fucks

[Anonymous No.16786466]

Why don't more places have pesto sauce, it's probably one of the most delicious non-spicy sauces I've ever had, versatile, and complements many foods well.

[Anonymous No.16786473]

>>16786466
What does it taste like and what kind of food does it compliment?
I'm a bit interested.

[Anonymous No.16786487]

>>16786473
It has a creamy, nutty texture to it from cheese and nuts. Very savory, obviously tastes like basil, with olive oil, salt and pepper, and garlic. I made some bagels and mixed cream cheese and basil pesto to make a spread for them and it was fucking delicious. Some time this week I'm gonna make a pasta with homemade pesto sauce.

[Anonymous No.16786495]

>>16786466
It's actually quite expensive to make if done properly. You need a shitton of basil, good olive oil, parmesan cheese and pine nuts, none of these things are cheap.

[Anonymous No.16786497]

>>16786487
What is its shelf life if I make it myself?

[Anonymous No.16786508]

>>16786487
>I'm gonna make a pasta with homemade pesto sauce.
real pesto is spendy to make with all the basil and pine nuts. I'll mix basil and arugula if I'm gonna make a big batch and last time I used cashews instead of pine nuts. Make sure to temper the pesto if its cold before adding the pasta because the heat change will break the sauce.

[Anonymous No.16786517]

>>16786466
agreed, pesto is great
>>16786495
you can also play around with substitutions a bit if you want to cheap out. I've had one made with nettle and peanuts and it was honestly pretty great
the cheese is the one thing you can't really cheap out on though

[Anonymous No.16786518]

>>16786497
You can freeze it in an icecube tray and then transfer to a freezer ziploc and have little cubes of pesto ready for months.

[Anonymous No.16786532]

I've been making a lot of quinoa salad type meals with pesto, tomatoes, cucumber, roasted spiced chickpeas, salad greens, feta etc and it's so good every time. I fucking love pesto so goddamn much. The other night I got stoned and ended up just dipping strips of toast into the jar and eating it lmao

[Anonymous No.16786533]

Also, pesto on pizza is unbelievably based

[Anonymous No.16786794]

>>16786466
I just made some pesto a while ago. I agree, it's very good.

[Anonymous No.16786996]

>>16786508
>>16786495
Why aren't you growing basil?

[Anonymous No.16787032]

>>16786517
I experiment a lot with substitutions too, and in my experience most green leaved veggies like spinach and rocket work well, or part basil/part parsley. Last time I tried the greens from a bunch of carrots with walnut. It was quite peppery, but combined with some roasted cherry tomatoes went very well with the pasta.

[Anonymous No.16787064]

>>16786497
30 minutes. You think this is a joke, but you are wrong.

[Anonymous No.16788059]

>>16786466
>Basil Pesto
>Bowtie Pasta
>Diced red peppers
>Black Olives
>Chickpeas

It's my favorite comfort food. I can eat it and cry from joy

[Anonymous No.16788117]

>>16786996
Pine nuts are still like €80/kg

[Anonymous No.16788128]

>>16786497
>What is its shelf life if I make it myself?
This is a fresh sauce, shouldn't even be for sale in a grocery, really.

[Anonymous No.16788206]

>>16787064
Accurate. It's the kind of thing you make quickly while the pasta cooks. Basil scent rapidly disappears. And if you blanch it or make it too far in advance you may as well have used green food dye.

[Anonymous No.16789624]

>>16786466
people see it as labor intensive

[Anonymous No.16789733]

>>16786996
Last time I made pesto I used like two hole plants. Anyway, too stupid to grow anything that requires water, so I'm a Rosemary and tyme guy lol.

[Anonymous No.16789764]

>>16789733
>Rosemary and tyme
REMEEEEMBER ME TO ONE WHO LIVES THEEERE
SHEEE ONCE WAS A TRUE LOVE OF MIIIINE

[Anonymous No.16789796]

>>16789764
Good post

[Anonymous No.16789804]

>>16789764

Dunno how they did it, but it was so disrespectful of those time-traveling medieval fags to rip off Simon & Garfunkel.

[Anonymous No.16790325]

>>16786466
Pesto is spicy if you prepare it right. All that raw garlic should produce a burn.

[Anonymous No.16790441]

>>16786466
It's expensive and takes quite a bit of labor to make. Even if you have all the right ingredients, dumping it into a blender will just make green sauce, not pesto. If you're not pestoing your pesto it's not pesto. Even in Italy there are a lot of people who get pesto wrong, you're pretty much guaranteed to get it fucked up in some way outside of Italy.
>pinenuts
>basilica
>olive oil
>ideally the correct mortar (marble) and pestle (wood)
>correct technique too if you want the spot on texture
Worth noting there are much cheaper pesto varieties all over Italy, but the Genovese pesto is the one people think of when you say pesto for good reason, it's by far the best one if you make it right.

[Anonymous No.16790450]

>>16790441
>Even if you have all the right ingredients, dumping it into a blender will just make green sauce, not pesto

[Anonymous No.16790451]

>>16786466
pesto > tomato sauce >>>> alfredo sauce

[Anonymous No.16790455]

>>16790450
Yes, pesto means more or less "to pound", pestle (as in mortar and pestle) is called pestello in Italian. Completely different texture and consistency compared to blended, and as you know flavours develop differently when things are processed in a mortar and pestle compared to the slicing action of a blender.

You could probably make a machine that does the same motions for you, but that would be rather niche unless you're some high end Italian restaurant that makes loads of the stuff.

[Anonymous No.16790461]

i made it with pistachios instead of pine nuts because i couldn’t find them at a shitty grocery store. still was tasty

[Anonymous No.16790467]

>>16790461
I make mine with walnuts. It's pretty nice.

[Anonymous No.16790532]

>>16790461
>>16790467
i make mine with macadamia nuts because who needs the omega-6 fatty acids of pine nuts

[Anonymous No.16790552]

>>16786466
It's fucking awesome on burgers

[Anonymous No.16790566]

>>16786466
Pesto fucking SUCKS. We've already had this argument, you and I, you're going to say I'm watching my calories or some shit, and I'll remind you that I'm a 300 lb lard ass.

[Anonymous No.16790573]

>>16786466
>basil
>roasted cashews and sesame seeds
>little salt
>blend it up
>fucking best pesto ever

[Anonymous No.16790575]

>>16790441
feels great having an italian gf that makes pesto with me . made sundried tomato pesto yesterday

[Anonymous No.16790578]

>>16786495
>>16788117
>>16786996
>>16789733
>>16790441
>expensive
>diffucult
NAH AH bros.
>>16790573

[Anonymous No.16790583]

>>16790575
and imagine there are people who hate italians on /ck/ my bro

[Anonymous No.16790590]

>>16790583
:(
makes me so sad.
everyone should love each other and suck down delicious food from every culture
literally crying typing this post

[Anonymous No.16790603]

>>16790590
man that sarcasm is intense. OH SHIT WAIT YOU'RE THE ONE THAT HATES ITALIANS I JUST FUCKING GOT THAT hol up let me gtfo of here CANDLEJAC-

[Anonymous No.16790619]

>>16790441
It's necessary to pesto the pine nuts. Blades can chop it very fine but crushing makes it closer to paste.
There's a shortcut for basil though. Roll all the leaves up as if you would chiffonade it, then crush it with a rolling pin instead. Then toss it in a grinder.
ez

[Anonymous No.16790643]

>>16790603
im not being sarcastic...i love italians...im going to suck her clit right now

[Anonymous No.16790696]

Why the FUCK are pine nuts so expensive? Pinecones are literally fucking everywhere.

[Anonymous No.16790701]

French fries or fried diced potatos. Finished in a pan with little bit of cream and a spoon of pesto. Enjoy.

[Anonymous No.16790945]

>>16786466
It's delicious, but a bit heavy.

[Anonymous No.16791121]

>>16790945
Pesto is a light sauce

[Anonymous No.16791134]

>>16791121
How so?

There's olive oil and oil from the nuts and then also oil from the cheese. It's pretty heavy.

[Anonymous No.16791260]

broccoli and spinach pesto >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> gay ass basil pesto

[Anonymous No.16791266]

>>16791134
Literally every sauce has shitloads of oil in it. Of all the oils you could pick to make a smooth sauce with, olive oil is among the lightest. It's got a bright, grassy flavor. Pine nuts have a brighter flavor in comparison to many other nuts like peanuts. Basil tastes light and floral. The garlic and parm are more pungent but they shouldn't overpower everything else. This is a very light sauce, as opposed to something like stroganoff which is made with mushrooms, beef stock, red wine, and heavy cream.

[Anonymous No.16791312]

>>16790696
This. This thread was made by Big Pine Nut to trick you into buying overpriced nuts.

[Anonymous No.16791380]

>>16786473
>what kind of food does it compliment?
Pasta, flatbreads, and pizzas. Okay on some sandwiches too.

[Anonymous No.16792446]

>>16786466
Restaurant fag here. The biggest obstacle in the way of mass pesto is the amount of basil needed. Usual food providers sell basil by weight including the stems, so it ends up being one of the more expensive herbs to purchase.

[Anonymous No.16792452]

>>16786466
be careful what you ask for--a cheap pesto made from subpar ingredients tastes horrid, moreso than a lot of other condiments/sauces

[Anonymous No.16792470]

is it easy to harvest pine nuts on the west coast?

[Anonymous No.16792484]

To everybody saying that it's expensive, you can use peas to bulk out your greens, and cashews to substitute pine nuts.

Bretty gud.

[Anonymous No.16792790]

>>16786497
~4 days, max 1 week when refrigerated. To store, place in a small container, optionally coat in a small amount of vinegar or lemon juice, cover tightly in plastic wrap, and then close the container.

Also stores well in freezer, practically indefinitely.

>>16786495
The pine nuts don't really matter, you can use walnuts or almonds and it won't be a noticeable difference. You can also use a mix of parmesan and pecorino romano.

[Anonymous No.16792867]

>>16790325
Maybe a little, but the hot pasta should cook it a little bit.

[Anonymous No.16792890]

>>16786466
pesto is really fucking expensive to make properly in an easily commerciable way. but yes its probably one of the best sauces out there when made fresh as jesus intended

[Anonymous No.16792959]

>>16790590
love u g

[Anonymous No.16792978]

>>16792484
Try baby spinach to bulk out your basil, and walnuts instead of pine nuts.

[Anonymous No.16793000]

>>16792867
For optimal results, use it as a dipping sauce with bread. No cooking whatsoever, completely raw.

[Anonymous No.16793081]

Made some with my vast excess of basil. I pretty much only put it on pizza so I use like 6 leaves a month, shit grows out of control. Pesto is the only way to reign it in

[Anonymous No.16793084]

>>16786495
>>16788117
You can sub walnuts

[Anonymous No.16793103]

>>16786495
Just sub pine nuts with pistachios you'll be fine

[Anonymous No.16793653]

>>16786466
i don't remember where or when i had pesto but i have and i agree

[Anonymous No.16793667]

Why is everyone complaining about Basil prices? Just grow your own. Get about 5 or 6 medium pots and start some seeds. Wait about a month, plant another round of 5 or 6 pots. In a couple months you'll have more basil than you know what to do with. And it tastes so much better than store bought. Seeds are super cheap.

[Anonymous No.16794387]

>>16792978
>that captcha
lmao

[Anonymous No.16794390]

I grew up in Jersey eating a lot of Italian food and moved slowly westward over time. It's been surprising to me how many people around me now have never experienced pesto at all, much less good pesto.

[Anonymous No.16794403]

>>16790467
walnuts almonds cashews all make good pesto. i'll even throw some sundried tomatoes in mine.

[Anonymous No.16794468]

>>16786473
How have you never had pesto before?

[Anonymous No.16794473]

>>16786495
Given the quantity of pesto used for an average meal only pine nuts are expensive there, as other posters say you can easily substitute them

[Anonymous No.16794511]

>>16794390
I'm actually shocked by this thread, I didn't realise pesto was so uncommon. I've been having it my whole life, don't even really think of it as Italian food

[Anonymous No.16794515]

>>16791134
The fresh greens keep it light

[Anonymous No.16795841]

>>16793667
>, plant another round of 5 or 6 pots. In a
from what i understand about plants is the bigger the pot, the bigger the yeilds. it seems plants put out exponentially more product as the pot gets bigger. what about a nice windowsill sized trough of basil plants?

[Anonymous No.16795904]

>>16786996
Basil only really does well in hot climates.
If you live anywhere temperate or cold, you're fucked. Same with coriander.

Mint goes fucking wild in shitty UK weather though. Rosemary, Thyme, and other woody herbs also do well.

[Anonymous No.16795942]

>>16794468
I'm mexican. Most of its ingredients aren't popular here.

[Anonymous No.16796060]

>>16786466
Based OP. Pesto is the best fucking thing on Earth. If I ever get the death sentence and granted a special last meal, I'm asking for two pounds of pasta in pesto.