How To Make Authentic Pesto Genovese (Just Like In Genova!)

Pesto Genovese is a traditional basil pesto from the Italian region of Liguria, specifically from the city of Genova (Genoa in English). It's made with simple ingredients: fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, salt, parmigiano reggiano and pecorino romano.

Sometimes there's nothing better than a simple, traditional basil pesto. Pesto means “beaten” in Italian, so really, pesto can be made with almost anything, as long as it’s beaten into a sauce.
Of course the most common pesto this basil pesto with pine nuts, but there’s sun dried tomato pesto, arugula pesto, zucchini pesto, pistachio pesto, and many more!

Why you should make it

• It's delicious - The flavors blend together perfectly to make a thick, herby and flavorful sauce
• It's as easy as it gets to make - simply throw the ingredients into a blender, it doesn't get much easier than that, does it?
• It's versatile - pesto can be used for so many things, on pasta, on panini or crostini, in salads - it's great to have on hand to add to so many dishes to take the flavor up a notch

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• How to make it - step by step
• Different ways to make pesto
• Pesto and oxidation
• Ways to use it
• Pasta to use
• FAQ
• Top tips
• How to store
• Recipe

Ingredients

Pesto is all about the harmonious blend of few, simple ingredients.

Basil - traditionally young sweet basil from Genova (basil from Pra'- a district near Genova) is used. But any Italian basil will do. If not using a small-leaved young Italian basil, some may suggest to give the basil a very quick boil to rid it of its strong flavor. In my opinion, the boiling is not needed even if using older, larger-leaved varieties of basil. Just keep in mind that the end flavor may be slightly stronger.

Garlic - in the traditional recipe, garlic from Vessalico (a city in Liguria) is used, because it has a delicate flavor. And pesto is all about balancing the flavors of the various ingredients - the garlic is not meant to overpower the final product; this is why a type of garlic with a milder flavor is supposed to be used. However, if you live outside of Liguria, this garlic may be difficult to find, so it is suggested to use any good quality garlic, with the germ removed. The germ generally has a harsher taste than the rest of the garlic, so removing it is important to make pesto, so the garlic doesn't take over the whole flavor of the pesto in the end.

Pine nuts - the traditional nut to use in a classic pesto, gives a beautiful, subtle nutty flavor

Coarse salt - just a little pinch since the parmigiano and pecorino romano are already quite salty

Olive oil - Helps to amalgamate all the ingredients and impart flavor. Like most of the other ingredients, preferably an extra virgin olive oil from Liguria is best.

Parmigiano reggiano - adds a robust and complex, cheesy flavor to the pesto

Pecorino sardo - Stronger than parmigiano, less pecorino than parmigiano is used in pesto, but pecorino adds a punch of flavor that parmigano cannot

How to make it - step by step

Wash the basil leaves (photo 1)

Make the pesto

To a blender add the pine nuts, salt and garlic. Pulse a few times until blended together (photo 2)

Add the basil and olive oil (photo 3). Pulse again until basil is completely blended and a creamy texture starts to form.

Add the parmigiano and pecorino to the blender (photo 4) and pulse until blended into the pesto.

Use immediately, or place in a jar, top with olive oil and place in fridge or freezer (photo 5)

Different ways to make pesto

With a mortar and pestle

The first pesto recipe appeared in 1870 in Giovanni Battista Ratto's work: La Cuciniera genovese. This to say that pesto has been around for a very long time. When pesto was first made, it was made the old fashioned way: with a mortar and pestle, specifically a carrara marble mortar and a wooden pestle.

If you were to make pesto the traditional way, you can definitely still follow this recipe in this post, but the order of the steps is slightly modified. Start with mashing the garlic, pine nuts and salt in the mortar with the pestle.

Add the basil to the mortar and begin crushing the basil. Add more basil as there is room in the mortar. You will see a cream start to form. Add the cheese.

Add the olive oil slowly until the pesto forms (here is a great video for reference if you'd like to make it with the mortar and pestle - the video is in Italian, however it's a good way to see the mortar and pestle process from start to finish.)

With a food processor or blender

A mortar and pestle may be the traditional way to make pesto, but a food processor and blender make the process much easier.

A food processor will work well to make pesto, however I find it chops up the ingredients coarser than a blender, and the end result isn't as creamy. But if a food processor is your only option, you will end up with a very good pesto. Do not let this stop you from making it!

I found the best way to make pesto is to use the blender. It blends the ingredients together nicely and gives the pesto a creamy texture.

Pesto and oxidation

Basil is known to oxidize - making the pesto turn a brownish color instead of bright green.

There are a few tips that can prevent the pesto from oxidizing while you're making it:

• Freeze the top piece (jug) of the blender for about one hour before beginning to make the pesto
• When making the pesto, don't blend continuously, this will heat up the blades and subsequently the basil. Instead use short pulses so as not to heat up the blades.
• Some people even add an ice cube to the blender or food processor when adding the basil to keep it cold

Pesto can also oxidize if left at room temperature for too long. So putting it in the fridge as soon as it's made is suggested. However, even in the fridge, the pesto can still oxidize on the top (becomes a darker color, sort of like guacamole does), but below this surface layer it will remain bright green.

To prevent the oxidation at the top, you can store the pesto in a jar as opposed to a bowl, so there is not much surface area at the top, meaning less of the pesto will oxidize. You can also cover the top of the pesto with olive oil, and this will help it to prevent from oxidizing at the top.

Ways to use it

• With pasta - just add some pasta water! Pesto should never be heated up. Just add some pasta water if it needs to be thinned out a bit.
• On crostini - pesto and burrata are a great combination!
• On pizza
• In sandwiches
• In salad dressing

Pasta to use

If you want to make a traditional pesto pasta dish, there are a few shapes of pasta shapes to use:

1. Trofie - a short, thin twisted pasta from Liguria made with semola flour and water
2. Trenette - a long pasta similar to spaghetti, made with a mix of 00 flour, whole wheat flour and egg. The traditional way to serve them is by boiling potatoes and green beans, then throwing the pasta into the same pot to let it cook. Once all ingredients are cooked, they are drained and mixed in with the pesto

Trofie are quite hard to find in stores unless you make them yourself. We don't always (almost never!) have time to make fresh pasta, so I like using fusilli as they have somewhat of a similar twisty, tight shape to trofie.

But when it comes down to it, you can use pretty much any shape of pasta with pesto. Spaghetti, farfalle, penne would all work well (ie. whatever you have on hand)

FAQ

Top tips

• Add just a very small pinch of salt to the pine nuts and garlic - the parmigiano and pecorino will add enough salt
• This recipe uses one clove of garlic. The flavors in pesto are meant to work together harmoniously. If adding too much garlic, the garlic may overpower the other ingredients. In the end it's up to personal preference, so if you'd like you can definitely add more garlic.
• If you don't have pine nuts, you can use walnuts or pistachios instead

How to store

Pesto will last in the fridge for up to 5 days in an airtight container. Cover it with a thin layer of olive oil to act as a seal so it won't oxidize at the top.

Pesto will last in the freezer for up to 6 months. Place it in airtight containers or jars. You can also freeze pesto in ice cube trays, pop them out once they are frozen and place in a ziploc bag in the freezer.

If you’ve tried making this Pesto Genovese, or any other recipe on the blog please let me know what you thought of it in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, PINTEREST and TIKTOK to see more delicious food and what I’ve been up to.

Recipe

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