The famous Italian pesto sauce, which is more than two hundred years old, is an indispensable seasoning for many Mediterranean dishes, but is especially tasty with spaghetti, risotto rice and ravioli. The unforgettable Mediterranean color and taste of the sauce is given by traditional Italian products included in its composition. By the way, classic pesto sauce is made exclusively in a marble or porcelain mortar, grinding its ingredients with a wooden pestle. Hence the name of the sauce, which comes from the verb pestare, which in Italian means “grind”, “crush”. Modern housewives try to devote much less time to cooking dishes, and the kitchens are now equipped with many convenient appliances designed to facilitate manual labor, so if desired, the mortar can be replaced with a blender or meat grinder.
The most common sauce recipe consists of green basil, pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, salt and olive oil. Some of these ingredients may vary. So, in some Italian regions, fresh or sun-dried tomatoes are added to the sauce ; hard parmesan cheese is complemented with soft sheep. There are recipes without the use of nuts or recipes where instead of pine nuts lay almonds. In addition to the classic ingredients, rucola, spinach, walnut or peanut, dill, etc. are added to the sauce. But the most obligatory and irreplaceable product is, of course, cold-pressed olive oil, without which a real pesto sauce is impossible. What is this sauce with? First of all, these are traditional Italian dishes - spaghetti, ravioli and risotto. However, pesto sauce is an excellent partner for various vegetable, fish and meat dishes, as well as the most ordinary side dish, it can turn into a self-sufficient delicious dish.
There are many more recipes where you can use pesto sauce. What is classic pesto eat with? It is often used for baking fish and meat dishes. For example, cod or salmon is baked by putting fish in a mold, and pesto sauce is poured on top. What else to eat with? This sauce is very well pickled chicken, pieces of beef or pork, which are then baked in the oven. The meat becomes very tender and retains all its juices during cooking. Very tasty meat dishes are obtained if a thick pesto sauce is spread on them before grilling. What is this delicious seasoning yet to eat? It is often used in sandwiches and snack cakes as a base for meat or vegetable layers, as well as in pizza with tomatoes and cheese. Finally, in traditional warm Italian salads with pasta and seafood, pesto sauce is also used as seasoning. Its widest application, even spread on a piece of bread, the sauce gives it a piquant and very original taste.
How to cook pesto sauce? A classic green sauce is prepared from basil leaves, pine nuts, which are taken in equal proportions, grated sheep cheese and parmesan, a clove or two garlic, salt and olive oil, which is added in the process of mixing all the components of the sauce in such a proportion that it does not turn out too thick and not too thin. All of these products are mixed in a mortar or in a blender until the consistency of thick sour cream.
Add a little balsamic vinegar and dried or fresh tomatoes to the red sauce. All ingredients are also mixed in a blender, vinegar and olive oil are added to the desired consistency. The resulting red pesto fits very well with Italian pasta, as well as with baked eggplant and meat.
The famous Italian sauce, which is deservedly considered the property of this national cuisine, has long crossed the borders of the state and conquered the whole world. Therefore, we will enjoy its taste and prepare a wide variety of dishes, using this magnificent sauce as seasoning for them.