How often do you buy a bunch of basil, use a dozen leaves or so in a sauce or salad then wonder what to do with the rest? The answer’s easy: make pesto, the famous bright green basil sauce of Liguria. Though if you’re buying basil specifically to make pesto, get a pot of living basil and follow this pesto alla Genovese recipe, as the smaller leaves are even better. Pesto means ‘to pound’ as this sauce is traditionally made using a mortar and pestle, but I find a blender works well if you blend it as briefly as possible; too long and the heat generated changes the flavour. Pesto should never be heated, just tossed through freshly cooked pasta off the heat. Whip up a batch of pesto to preserve the flavour of summer for the cooler months. It keeps for ages in an airtight container in the fridge covered with a layer of oil or with a piece of plastic pressed onto the surface to stop it oxidising, and it’s great stirred into soups or drizzled over tomatoes for a simple salad. I like the herbal notes of sauvignon blanc with pesto, especially ones from the Adelaide Hills like d’Arenberg’s The Broken Fishplate. See video below for Lucio Galletto’s tips on how to make pesto.
Serves 4 as a starter
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