Ten Recipes using Homemade Pesto!

Ten Recipes using Homemade Pesto!

I have literally 100's of Pesto options on my site and it is time for you to be converted to pesto. But let's explore what pesto is first!

The original pesto alla genovese, the quintessential pesto recipe, is made with Genovese basil, coarse salt, garlic, Ligurian extra virgin olive oil (Taggiasco), European pine nuts (sometimes toasted) and a grated cheese like Parmigiano or Pecorino Romano. A proposal is under preparation by the Palatifini Association to have pesto alla genovese included in the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list in which case I may have to alter this article and all the recipes that are associated with the word 'pesto' heaven forbid.

Pesto essentially means pound! So pound the herbs, with nuts, cheeses, other seasonings of choice. For me the sky is the limit with options for pesto....but since going to Genova and tasting the original pesto I realise why they are so protective of the recipe and name! Tradition is tradition!

My caution to you for flavour with pestos is to make sure you use the very best ingredients, especially the extra virgin olive oil component. You will find the Cobram Estate dark green bottle as good (or better) as any imported expensive EVOO at a fraction of the cost and very widely available. Fat carries flavour and so you need the very best.

Moving along though...here are some of my top 'pesto' recipes to start with.

Sophia Loren is famously quoted as saying that everything you see she owes to pasta. I would add, there is some pesto in all that gorgeousness too! (She also said, which I love; "Spaghetti can be eaten most successfully if you inhale it like a vacuum cleaner.")

So you've made your pesto. Now you are ready to use it (assuming you didn't eat it immediately by the spoonful!) Here are my top ten recipes using homemade pesto. And I have dozens more. There may be a pesto project afoot now that I have written this article.

For LOADS more Pesto ideas and inspiration

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Tenina Holder

Tenina Holder is a wife, mother of five and grandmother of six, who started cooking in the olden days before Thermomix was even a thing.

Tenina has become the premium go to source for all Thermomix expertise and of course fresh and easy recipes that work. Her cooking classes and foodie trips are sold out in literally hours, her cookbooks appear on the Australian best seller lists and her social reach is in the millions. Her Insider Club is the most fun you can have with a Thermomix and you really should join her! She believes chocolate, butter and salt are health foods. Her food positivity mantra is, eat everything, just not all at once!

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