We’ve been eating a lot of trenette al pesto at our house lately. So much that Francesco suggested we lay off for a week or so for fear of getting sick of it and never wanting to eat it again. Seeing possible wisdom in it, I agreed with a soft sigh. Two days later, he comes home with … a huge bunch of basil! Guess what we had for dinner again? I think we’ll ride the pesto wave until end of the season — happily. Abstaining from homemade pesto pasta isn’t our strong suit.
Come to think of it, this happens every summer. And we’ve been asked for our pesto recipe quite a few times over the years. So here it is (and Mom, you can find it here now whenever you need it)!
Trenette al Pesto – Che Buono!
Pasta al Pesto is a wonderful dish of the summer Italian Mediterranean diet, and trenette is one of the most popular pastas to prepare it with. Although you can buy pre-made pesto in the store, there is no comparison to a plate of trenette with fresh homemade pesto.
Trenette is a long narrow ribbon pasta similar to linguine, but with a bit of a contour. This dried pasta, made of durum wheat flour and water, is found in Liguria, Italy, where it is commonly served with pesto.
Pesto is the Italian word for food crushed with an ancient “food processor,” the mortar and pestle — one of the oldest kitchen techniques in the world.
The version of pesto we make at home, and what a lot of people in Italy think of as classic pesto, is Pesto Genovese, a simple uncooked salsa verde, or green sauce made with garlic, fragrant basil and pine nuts blended with grated Parmesan and Pecorino Sardo cheeses, and good extra virgin olive oil.
Pesto Genovese Origins
Pesto is a sauce of ancient origins, made by pounding or grinding ingredients in a mortar with a pestle. Of all the pestled Italian sauces, Pesto Genovese, from Liguria’s Italian Riviera, has emerged as one of the most popular today. The Genoese have made different pestled sauces with ingredients and preferences that have changed over time until one pesto, or battuto all’aglio, emerged as an official favorite — and they put their name on it.
Pesto Genovese tastes of aromatic fresh basil, rich creamy nuts and salty cheese, with a pungent kick of garlic. However, the taste of each batch of pesto varies depending on your ingredients. No two pestos taste alike.
If you like pasta with pesto, you’ll love Pesto alla Trapanese (Pesto Rosso) in the summertime.
Ingredients for Trenette al Pesto
The official ingredients of Pesto Genovese include fresh garlic, pine nuts, basil, a blend of Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Sardo cheese and extra virgin olive oil. Although basil has become the signature herb of pesto Genovese, pesto is very versatile. Other combinations of herbs and greens, nuts, and cheeses make a wonderful pesto using the same recipe. For each classic ingredient below, I’ve also listed my favorite variations.
Garlic
Pesto Genovese is essentially a pestled garlic sauce with basil added. The quality, age and strength of your garlic will have an important influence on the taste of your pesto. We want our garlic to be sweet and mild. Use garlic as plump and fresh as possible.
Pesto without Garlic?
Basil pesto is at its essence, an agliata (pronounced ah-LYEE-ah-tah), a condiment that comes from the Italian word for garlic: aglio. So without the garlic, it’s not traditional pesto Genovese. (Garlic is said to have antimicrobial properties, and is an ancient ingredient used for preservation in the pre-fridge era.)
Is pesto without garlic any good? Sure! Pesto still tastes amazing without garlic. While it may be far from its origins, there are reasons and occasions to omit garlic, like for a special meeting, or if you have problems digesting garlic. Or maybe you’re just out of garlic and want to make pesto anyway. And if your garlic looks old, it’s better to have pesto with no garlic than old garlic that takes on a strong and overwhelming influence. So, if you need to or want to, leave it out. It’s an adaption I sometimes make. Another option is using a tiny amount.
Basil
What kind of basil you have will change the flavor of your pesto. Basil expresses itself differently depending on its variety, the earth it’s grown in and so on. To varying degrees, it can be sweet, grassy or lemony, and have mild to strong flavors of peppery menthol, hints of liquorice and clove. Sweet basil, freshly picked, is traditional and most common.
Did you know? Basil, native to tropical regions of India, Southeast Asia and Africa, spread to Greece, the Middle East and Italy around 350 BC, the time of Alexander the Great. It gets its name from Greek basileus, meaning king. Basil started being cultivated in England much later, in the 16th century, and then on to America with European migration.
Basil is actually in the mint family, along with most of the other common herbs we know. In Liguria, a basil with the least amount of mint or menthol flavor is sought. For everyone who doesn’t eat quite as much pesto as the Ligurians, a natural hint of mint is probably less of a deal-breaker. However, the bigger and older basil gets, the stronger mint taste it seems to take on. For the sweetest basil, choose the smallest leaves you can.
Basil Leaf Tasting
Next time you make basil pesto, try a basil leaf tasting: First try the smallest leaves. Then medium-sized ones. Then any giant leaves. Taste the difference? I wouldn’t call the smaller ones sweet, but definitely the sweetest by comparison. What else do you pick up? Pepper? Any liquorice? …
Basil Wisdom
- Only use fresh, crisp, undamaged basil leaves. Avoid old, brown or wilted leaves.
- Choose smaller leaves. If you have big beautiful basil leaves, you will get a little harsher tasting pesto. Besides being less sweet, the bigger leaves are also tougher, and therefore harder to crush with a mortar and pestle. It helps to tear bigger leaves into smaller pieces first, but they still won’t crush as nicely. In this situation, when we don’t have access to the ideal small basil leaves, we use the food processor.
- Basil flowers are perfectly edible. You can throw in any flowered basil tops if you like.
Basil Freshness
I must have some kind of super sensitive basil freshness detection genes, because I am pretty ridiculously sensitive to the taste of oxidized basil. Besides losing its beautiful green color, the flavor of the pesto changes! Fifteen minutes after the basil leaves are crushed, it’s just not the same pesto anymore. (Is it just me?) For the best pesto:
- Buy your basil the same day you make trenette al pesto (or harvest your own from a pot or garden). Otherwise, you may find that the next day is too late, even in the fridge. This has happened to us a few times!
- To Prolong Freshness: If your basil has long stems, keep the bouquet in a glass or vase of water that is changed daily. Otherwise, wrap it in paper towels and keep in a plastic bag in the warmest part of the fridge.
Basil Swap
- Arugula – Our favorite swap for basil pesto is arugula. We love Pesto di Rucola in the fall when we still have a taste for pasta al pesto, yet basil’s sweet season is over. There are actually a lot of advantages to using arugula: it keeps longer in the fridge than basil, the pesto becomes creamier, and it stay’s a lot greener. Basically, you can relax a little more with arugula.
- Marjoram – Marjoram has been used in pestos with pine nuts for eons. It is also listed in the first documented recipe for pèsto or battuto all’aglio (its other name, since pesto is also called a battuto of garlic) from the late 1800s, as an option to mix with parsley, when basil is not available to make pesto.
- Parsley – Mixed half and half with marjoram (see above).
Pine Nuts
The quantity and kind of nuts you use changes the taste and texture of your pesto. Pine nuts have long been sought after for their buttery flavor and soft texture. However, they can sometimes be hard to come by or find good quality (avoid pine nuts that are shriveled or old looking), and boy can they be expensive!
I get why pine nuts are so expensive! One of the things I really like in the Mediterranean is a nice big beach with a nice big shady umbrella pine forest to take a nice big walk through (or nap). And it’s here that I’ve made some sticky discoveries about pine nuts (okay, many of my “walks” have actually become pine cone harvests). The hard reality though, is that I get a lot more sticky pine cone resin on my hands (that doesn’t come off!) and black soot-like substance from the outer shells on my fingers, than the precious few pine nuts I can harvest (eat en route). These discoveries, along with a few small hand injuries involving a primitive rock tool I used to pry them open, have wised me up to pay for pine nuts with a smile.
Notes:
- Pine nuts in Italy are added to pesto in the raw state (pesto is an uncooked sauce). No need to toast the pine nuts.
- Notice the quantity of nuts in this recipe: pesto doesn’t need a lot of nuts.
Pesto without Pine Nuts
Not finding good pine nuts for pesto alla Genovese is sad, but all is not lost if you don’t have them. Here are some good pine nut alternatives:
- No nuts – The recipe credited to be the first documented pesto (Called: Battuto o Sapore all’aglio [Pèsto]) has no mention of nuts. (This continues today in the Pistou recipe from Provence, Liguria’s French next-door neighbor.)
- Walnuts are a great pine nut substitute for pesto. They’ve long been used in Liguria and throughout Italy, and are actually the only substitute mentioned in today’s official Pesto Genovese recipe.
- Pistachios have been mixed with pine nuts in pestled green sauces for eons.
- Almonds in Pesto? Almonds may not be the choice nut around Genova today, but they have been used in the past, sometimes mixed with pine nuts. Around Trapani in Sicily, almonds are used in their favorite version of pesto (what we call Pesto Trapanese), with the addition of tomatoes. I think that combo works beautifully, and is one of our favorite deep summer pasta recipes. But for our green pesto on today’s menu, pecans or walnuts would be my substitute of choice. However, finely ground almond meal works in a pinch.
- Pecans – If you live in a pecan growing region, or have access to fresh, plump, buttery pecans, give them a try!
Cheese
The richness, saltiness and blend of your cheeses will influence the taste, texture and overall mouthfeel of your pesto. Although different cheeses have been popular in the past (in the 1800s, Formaggio d’Olanda, Cheese from Holland, was recorded as being used in pesto), a blend of grated hard cheese is popular today in Liguria, and throughout Italy. The favorites are Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Sardo.
Classic Cheese Blends for Pesto
- Aged Parmigiano Reggiano – True Parmesan, a cow’s milk cheese from the Emilia-Romagna region around Parma, Italy, (Grana Padano, another rich grana cheese from the Middle Ages, is often used in place of Parmigiano.)
- Aged Pecorino Sardo cheese – An ancient Mediterranean cheese made from sheep’s milk from the Italian island of Sardinia. (If substituting with Pecorino Romano, use less. Pecorino Romano, which is made mostly in Sardinia, has a saltier taste than the Pecorino Sardo made in Sardinia. Other pecorino cheeses are milder.)
- Ratio – The ratio of cheeses is a personal preference.
- 75/25 – Around Liguria, the general ratio is heavier on Parmigiano.
- 50/50 – We usually use half and half when we have access to good Sardinian pecorino, which is less salty than Pecorino Romano.
- Adjust – After the first batch, adjust the ratio of cheeses to suit your taste. If your pecorino is more salty, or you want a little milder taste, increase the ratio of Parmigiano cheese next time.
Tip: If you are going to put cheese, put cheese. Go ahead and put the full amount called for here. We made pesto recently with just half of the amount of cheese and … it was if we hadn’t put any at all! The recipe I’m giving you has the minimum of cheese possible for enjoyment. So if you don’t want to put the full amount in the recipe: you might as well not put any at all. That way, you won’t be adding extra calories to your day that you could enjoy elsewhere!
Salt
With the traditional method of making pesto with a mortar and pestle, the coarseness of the salt is more important. The larger surface area of coarse salt crystals provides a sharp helper to pestle the ingredients. Heads up: Add the grated cheese before you adjust for salt, since the cheese is a big salt contributor to the pesto.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Fresh pesto calls for great olive oil — the better the quality, the better the flavors. Get the best olive oil you can get your hands on. Ideally, you want extra virgin olive oil, from the first pressing of the olives, that has been produced within the past year. This can mean seeking out small-producer extra-virgin olive oils.
Where to find Extra Virgin Olive Oil:
Good extra virgin olive oils in the US can be quite expensive. However, Trader Joe’s thankfully sells Trader Giotto’s Sicilian Selezione Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Keep your olive oil in the dark! – Olive oil that has been sitting in a lot of heat, or exposed to light, is easily compromised, and will compromise your pesto too, with inferior flavors at best. Keep your olive oil in the coolest part of your kitchen (away from the stove, oven, windows…) Tip: If your olive oil is in a clear bottle, you can cover it in foil to keep the light out.
Other Additions to Trenette al Pesto
- Green beans add interest and extra nutrients and to the pasta dish.
- What about potatoes? Aren’t they in the authentic recipe? Although not in the modern official Pesto Genovese recipe, green beans and potatoes are part of its history and tradition. I skip potatoes since we already get enough starch from the pasta — and since pesto is already a very substantial dish. (Pesto is not as dainty as it looks!)
Trenette Pasta
There are a handful of traditional pastas for Pesto Genovese, and trenette is one of the most popular. Trenette (pronounced trrreh-NET-teh) is similar to linguine, but with a bit of a contour.
Substitutes for Trenette
Other Genoese favorites include: trofie a thin dense version of gnocchi, tagliolini (or tagliatelle) and big hankerchief-thin lasagne noodles (fazzoletti di seta). Check out the recipe for house favorites we also use.
Keeping Pesto Green
Store-bought basil pesto must have preservatives to keep it from oxidizing. At home, there are a few other things we can do:
- Cool off your blending tools – (for food processor) Put the container and blade of the food processor or blender in the freezer to cool off for around 10 minutes before using.
- Wait to crush the basil leaves until the last minute – This is always a good idea with basil. In the last 5 minutes of cooking the pasta, blend the basil leaves into the pesto, followed by the cheese.
- Add ice – This is my top choice. Add an ice cube to the food-processor, or equivalent crushed ice to the mortar, at the same time as the basil, and proceed to blend.
- Expose the basil to a quick blast of heat: I originally came across this technique in Jacques Pépin’s cookbook Essential Pépin, as I had never heard of it done in Italy.
- Microwave the basil – I’ll relay Jacque’s instructions: Microwave the basil on high in a plastic bag for 1 minute, then blend while hot. Simple enough.
- Blanch the basil – Before throwing the pasta in the water, plunge the basil into the boiling water for about 5 seconds. Quickly fish it out, sit it on a paper towel to drain a little, and then while still warm, blend it in with the other pesto ingredients before drizzling in the olive oil. (Note, blanching is also said to diminish basil aroma, so keep it quick!)
- Add a squeeze of lemon – As you may have guessed, this also makes the pesto more lemony. Some people love the added tang of lemon to pesto. Others (like me) prefer to leave it out.
There’s the modern way to make pesto, and there’s the way it was always made before food processors came along — the pestle. I use both.
Making Pesto with a Mortar & Pestle
Skip to Using a Food Processor
The traditional method of making pesto is with a mortar and pestle, hence it’s name. When I finally decided to try it out, after years of using a food processor, the elegantly-crushed texture and superior taste resulting from the way the flavors meld together, quickly won me over.
Making pesto with the mortar and pestle doesn’t take much longer than with a food processor. And the texture is another thing all together. If you have a mortar and pestle, or are curious, I highly recommend trying it. The whole process is quite enjoyable, allowing you to enjoy the ingredients’ aromas to their fullest as you prepare your pesto. Once you try it, you may find yourself pulling out the mortar and pestle often.
Pro Tip: With the mortar and pestle, you really want nice, tender leaves, on the small side. Big leaves, besides not being as nice tasting, do not pestle well — they’re too tough.
What kind of mortar and pestle?
An Italian marble mortar (often made from the Carrara marble queries in Tuscany) with a wooden pestle is traditional. I would suggest something similar to this 18cm (7″) mortar with wooden pestle on Amazon, or try Etsy. Ikea also has an inexpensive one. You may have to procure a wooden pestle separately.
Making Pesto with a Food Processor
We made pesto solely in the food processor for decades, like most people do now in Italy. We finally started making pesto with a mortar and pestle in the last few years. However, I still make it with the food processor as well, especially if making pesto for more than a few people.
Using a food processor is a little less work, and a little faster. Although, it’s technically no longer pesto, since you aren’t pestling it! And the texture, flavor, and color will be a little different. But it still makes a great pesto sauce. Even more so with a couple of tips.
Food Processor Tips for Pesto
- Add Nuts & Garlic First – While you can throw it all in the food processor at the same time, it comes out better if you get the nuts nicely blended before adding the basil leaves. If you blend it all together at the same time, you will have to over-process the basil in order to get the nuts creamy enough.
- Get the Perfect Texture
- Adjust the liquid depending on the tenderness of your basil leaves, the oil in the nuts, and how much cheese you add. You only really need to add enough oil to help it blend (unless you don’t mind it becoming a caloric bomb!). You will be able to make it creamier with hot pasta water after removing it from the food processor, if needed.
- To make a rustic textured pesto closer to the texture you get with a mortar and pestle, use short pulses. If you would like more of a smooth purée, simply blend it on high instead of pulsing.
- Add Basil Last – To combat oxidation without adding extra work or ingredients, add the basil last, and wait until five minutes before the pasta is ready to press the blend button on the food processor. Basil starts degrading quickly, so this way you can serve it before it starts to turn dark.
You can use a blender instead of a food processor, although it’s more difficult to scrape the pesto out of a blender. A stick blender works too. Just follow the same order as with a food processor.
Storing Pesto
It’s common in Italy to refrigerate the remainder of pesto in a small water glass or jar. If stored properly and promptly (don’t let it sit out at room temperature), pesto can keep in the refrigerator for a few days up to a week, or in the freezer for up to a month.
To store, after filling your container of choice with pesto, pour a layer of olive oil on top to create a barrier, and place plastic wrap directly on the surface. Both are to keep the air from touching the pesto to prevent oxidation (it usually gets a little dark on top anyway). Store in the fridge or freezer. Don’t leave pesto at room temperature.
Note, the flavor of pesto changes in storage. Depending on your genes, your tastebuds may not detect or mind the flavor change. I like to make just enough for one meal. Since pesto is so quick and easy to make, I think it’s worth it.
Recommended Tools and Sources for Pesto
- Mortar and Pestle (See mortar and pestle notes above) or food processor.
- Small Wooden Spoon or Spatula – Good for blending the cheeses into the sauce, or getting the pesto out of the food processor without damaging your rubber spatula.
- Kitchen Scale – Makes measuring so much easier.
- Pasta Pot – At least 8qt.
- Collander or Perforated Spoon or Spider – For draining the pasta whichever way you like.
- Cheese Grater – While I love my microplane, the old Italian fine powder cheese grater for hard cheese is superior in grating Parmesan and Pecorino cheeses. It’s usually found on one side of a box grater; or like this Italian cheese grater at Sur la Table (the olive wood box to catch the cheese is not necessary, but nice). However, this kind of grater also tends to waste a lot of cheese, which is hard to clean from the star-shaped grates. What do I do? I have a dedicated fork that I use to get the most Parmesan possible from between the rows of the star-shaped grates.
Basic Secrets to Making Great Trenette al Pesto
We know that the key secret to great pesto is in the ingredients. We have all the secrets for pestling our pesto! And we know the tools. It’s time to make trenette al pesto! Remember to keep these tips in mind:
- Keep it fresh (See Basil Wisdom above)
- First ingredients first – How and what order you blend the ingredients makes a difference in the final flavor and texture. (See recipe)
- Make it creamier with hot water – If you need to, add a bit more oil to help blend the pesto, then switch to a little hot pasta water to blend to the desired creaminess. (And watch — it may turn greener too!)
- Use a serving bowl, not a hot pan, to toss the pesto with pasta. Prolonged heat can cook the uncooked sauce into something less appetizing.
- Don’t dally – Make and serve at once for the freshest color (see other tips for keeping basil pesto green.)
Recipe
Ingredients
For the Sauce:
- 1 clove garlic (small to medium)
- ¼ tsp coarse sea salt, or kosher salt
- 2 Tbsp pine nuts, plus more to garnish
- 4 cups fresh basil leaves, plus more to garnish (loose/unpacked), delicately washed and let dry on kitchen towel
- 3 Tbsp Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, freshly grated
- 3 Tbsp Pecorino Sardo cheese freshly grated (or use all Parmigiano)
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 8oz, ½ lb trenette pasta (or linguine or tagliatelle – for other substitutes, see Notes)
Instructions
- Bring a large covered pot of salted water to boil.
- When the pasta water comes to a boil, cook the pasta in the salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente, tender yet still firm to the bite.
- Meanwhile, make the sauce:If using Mortar and Pestle: (about 10 minutes) (chunky)Pound and grind the garlic with the salt into a creamy paste. Add the pine nuts and pestle until smooth. Add most of the basil leaves, hand torn if too big, an ice cube, or the same amount of crushed ice, and gently pound and grind downward and with a wheel-like rotation, until it becomes a thick paste. (Save a few small leaves for later to sprinkle on or around the pasta.)Stir in the cheese with a wooden spoon.Slowly stir in the olive oil until incorporated. If using Food Processor or Blender: (smoother)Cool off the container and blade of the food processor, or blender, in the freezer for around 10 minutes before using.Blend garlic, salt, pine nuts until finely ground into a sandy texture. Add basil leaves, an ice cube, or the same amount of crushed ice, and use short pulses to roughly blend. Add the cheese and olive oil, and blend until combined. If needed, add as little extra olive oil as possible to help blend. (You can use hot pasta water to make it creamier later.) It should have an elegantly rustic, chunky texture. If using Immersion Blender: (smoothest)Place all ingredients (including olive oil) in a bowl and use short pulses until desired consistency.
- Transfer the pesto sauce to a pasta serving bowl.
- Drain the pasta (reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta water to use if needed), and toss with the pesto sauce. If the sauce seems a little dry, add 1 to 2 Tbsp of the reserved pasta water and stir until creamy.
- Serve at once, sprinkled with grated cheese, small basil leaves, and a few whole pine nuts, with more cheese to be grated at the table for whoever wants it.
- Pasta Substitutes: Short tubes: half penne, rigatoni (ideal to capture pesto); Twisted braids: casarecce, gemelli; Shells: conchiglie; Gnocchi: trofie (traditional), strozzapreti, potato gnocchi; Flat pasta: pappardelle (beautiful, yet a little more cumbersome to eat)
- Nut Substitutes: walnuts, pecans, pistachios, finely ground almond meal
- Cheese Substitutes: for Parmigiano: Grana Padano; for Pecorino Sardo: Pecorino Romano (saltier, so use less)
- Variations:
- Herb Variations: arugula, or parsley/marjoram blend
- Green beans, snapped in thirds, or haricot verts, left whole or snapped. Add to boiling pasta water in the pasta’s last 6 minutes of cooking.
- Variations to Keep Basil Bright Longer: If you don’t have ice, you can also use heat or lemon juice:
- Microwave – Microwave the basil on high for 1 minute in a plastic bag. Blend into other pesto ingredients while hot, before adding the oil.
- or Blanch – Plunge the basil into the boiling pasta water for about 5 seconds. Quickly fish out, sit on a paper towel to drain a little, and while still warm, blend it in with the other pesto ingredients, before drizzling in the olive oil. (Note, blanching can also diminish basil aroma, so keep it quick!)
- Lemon – Add a squeeze of lemon with the basil. (Some people love the added tang of lemon, while others prefer not to change the fragrance and taste of the pesto.)
- To Store: Fill a small container with pesto and, to prevent oxidation, pour a layer of olive oil on top and place plastic wrap directly on the surface (note: it usually gets a little darker on the surface anyway). Store in the refrigerator or freezer. Do not leave at room temperature.
