Fresh Pesto Genovese Sauce for Pasta

A recipe for a traditional Italian pasta sauce made with fresh basil and pine nuts (pine kernels) .  Pesto is remarkably easy to make and is simply stirred into hot pasta to serve.

This version uses both olive oil and butter.  Butter is much more widely used in northern Italian dishes than in southern ones, and pesto is originally from Genoa (Genova) in the North West of Italy.

This article gives more history http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/98aug/pesto.htm

1 cup/ 2 oz /  50g fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup / 4 fl oz / 110 ml olive oil
1/3 cup / 3 oz / 75g pine nuts
2 cloves of garlic
pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups / 4 oz / 100g / freshly grated parmesan (or a mixture of parmesan & pecorino)
1 stick / 2 oz / 50g butter

This makes enough pesto to serve with 1 1/2 lbs / 24 oz / 750g pasta

Strip the basil leaves from the stalks and discard the stalks

Grate the parmesan

Allow the butter to soften or soften in the microwave

Peel the cloves of garlic

Place the basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and pinch of salt into a food processor (traditionally a mortar and pestle would be used, but this is 21st century pesto) and blitz until it becomes a paste.  We like ours reasonably chunky still, but you can make it smoother if you prefer.  I Use a mini-processor, that I originally bought to puree baby food.  It is just big enough to do this quantity of pesto.

If freezing the sauce it is recommended that you do so before adding the dairy ingredients, though I have often frozen it with the butter and the cheese with no apparent loss of flavour or texture, and even if some is lost it is still much superior to the "pesto" you can buy in jars!

Empty the paste into a bowl and stir in the grated cheese and softened butter.

That's it, your pesto is now made!

Choose a pasta that will hold the sauce well - fusilli, radiatore or cellentani/cavatappi all work well.

Cook the pasta until 'al dente' - still slightly firm to the bite, not crunchy, not soggy. 

Take 6 to 8 tablespoons of the hot cooking water and stir it into the pesto sauce.  Drain the pasta, return to the pan and then stir in the pesto until the pasta is well coated. 

Serve immediately with crusty bread and a simple salad.