Cooking abroad: Pesto alla Genovese

This week, I’m going to teach you how to prepare some Genovesian style pesto.

Some of the ingredients might be hard to find during winter or fall, but there isn’t really any other options that would properly replace the main ingredients.

Ingredients

5 cloves of garlic;

2 teaspoons of sea salt;

100g of fresh basil;

5 teaspoons of pine nuts;

100g Parmesan cheese;

Black pepper;

Olive oil;

Cooking

Put the garlic in the mortar and pound it with the pestle until it is reduced to an almost cream like substance. Wash the basil and add it to the mortar along with a thin layer of olive oil. Use the pestle once again until the basil leaves are somewhat destroyed and then add the pine nuts.

Use the pestle once again on the mix, and, when the pine nuts and basil leaves are practically destroyed, grate the parmesan cheese and add it to the mix. Now, you just have to keep using the pestle until you fill that the pesto has reached the consistency you want it to be (add some more olive oil if you feel like the pesto is too solid).

Finally, if you don’t want to use the pesto straight away, just put it in a container and leave it the freezer with some olive oil on top. When you want to use it, leave it outside at room temperature until it has regained its proper consistency.

Tomas R.