Deconstructed: Pesto
Italian food is arguably one of the best cuisines in the world, and I'm not just talking about pasta and pizza. Tart limoncello, creamy risotto, crispy arancini, the list goes on, but there is one condiment that every good cook should know how to make, the leanest, greenest, and most delicious sauce around, pesto.
It is hard to beat herby, creamy, cheesy pesto. It can be tossed with pasta, drizzled over pizza or soup, spread onto a sandwich, or even served as a salad dressing. Now, while it's no secret that pesto is fantastic, what makes up this dreamy sauce is fascinating.
—————————————————————————————————————
Before diving into the ingredients, it's time for a quick history lesson. Pesto originated around the 16th Century in Geona, located in the Northern regions of Italy, the name coming from the Italian word for proud or to crush.
The classic blend of herbs, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, and parmesan makes up one of the most famous Italian sauces today.
With that history lesson out of the way, let's take a closer look at how the ingredients in pesto come together to form the creamy wonder, starting with the thing that makes it green, herbs.
For the most part, pesto is soft herbs blended with the other ingredients mentioned above to make a smooth consistency. Traditionalists will tell you that sweet and floral basil is the only option for pesto, but other soft herbs like parsley, sage, or a combination for a unique flavor profile.
Nuts, more specifically, pine nuts.
Pesto can't be pesto without these little nuts as they are full of oils which, when blended with olive oil, emulsify to create a creamy consistency. While pine nuts are traditional, they can be expensive, so any oily nut like walnuts, almonds, or even pistachios will also taste good.
Garlic, what keeps the vampires away and what keeps me happy.
The sharp flavor of raw garlic lifts any heaviness from the oil and the nuts for a more palatable experience. Of course, only a clove or two of garlic will do, but sometimes I'll add more if I'm mixing it into something to be served hot, as the garlic flavor will mellow out that way.
Lemon juice, not traditional for pesto, but I would recommend it.
American cooks will often add a squeeze or two of lemon juice to their pesto as it brightens the flavor and color, plus the acid gives the pesto a longer shelf life, so you can make it in advance and have it around for a while.
Olive oil, without question the king of oils.
Just like with any salad dressing, slowly drizzling olive oil into the pesto while being blended will emulsify the oil and lend to a velvety mouthfeel, plus the oil loosens the pesto to the desired thickness. While the oil will be one of the dominant flavors in pesto, there's no reason to shed out on an expensive bottle of high-quality extra virgin olive oil, any oil you'd be happy with putting on a salad will do just fine.
Parmesan cheese, arguably the king of Italian cheeses, as long as it's grated fresh.
Parmesan not only adds the salt needed to help season the pesto but once it blends in, it adds to the creamy texture even further as most cheeses are full of fat which helps give the signature creamy texture.
A quick tip, add the parmesan in once all of the other ingredients are blended up, as parmesan takes on a gritty texture if over-blended.
Pesto is one of the great Italian masterpieces everyone should know how to make, and appreciating what goes into the herby sauce makes one understand it even more.
