Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Improve your pasta with pesto eating experience

When the pasta is fully cooked, reserve a little of the starchy pasta water to pour in with the tossed pasta and pesto and toss again.

I just tried this for the first time, and it really increases the smoothness and flavor of the dish. That's how I'm eating pasta with pesto from now on. Huge improvement, IMO.

Timely. We are making it tonight. How do you make your pesto "sauce"?

I get a couple of packages of fresh basil that I've removed the major stems from, wash it and dry it in the salad spinner, then put it in the Cuisinart till it's chopped up good. Then I use a spatula to push all the bits that didn't get chopped up good towards the center, then chop it up again. Then I add salt, pepper (about a quarter teaspoon each), about a teaspoon of fresh crushed garlic, then about a quarter cup of pine nuts that have already been 1) lightly toasted on the stove top and 2) placed in a blender (not the Cuisinart), along with about the same amount of grated Parmiggiano Reggiano cheese. Then I add about a quarter cup of melted butter and a half cup of EVOO, and blend again till fully mixed. That's it.

If it looks like it could use more EVOO, add more, and blend again.

It should look about like this.

Thanks. Very similar to what we do with our and a neighbors home grown basil. We then freeze it in ice trays and use as needed.

Yep. I freeze mine, too. Never did it in ice trays before, though. I just freeze a container full, and when I want some, I put the whole thing into the microwave for just enough time to make it just barely soft enough to spoon out what I want (still quite firm from being nearly frozen still, about like ice cream), then the rest goes back in the freezer.

Well, did you try the trick? Really adds a silky smoothness, IMO.

Is this I stead of a red sauce or do you add red sauce? My wife likes Parmesan chicken, can this still be done with the pasta?

I remember in the 1980s restaurants were offering a sauce that was like a blend of Marinara and Pesto, and I had it a few times. It wasn't bad. But, generally, you don't add a tomato sauce to Pesto.

Made some pesto the other night using a mortar and pestle. Didn't have any pine nuts so subbed in pumpkin seeds. Deliberately went light on the oil so some could be added later to reconstitute the consistency. I was pretty pleased with the results.

I used skinned California walnuts instead of Chinkass Pinenuts.

Skinned walnuts?

Wow. I usually just gut them.

I eat them with a nice chianti as well.

I love pesto..I don’t make my own tho as the Kirkland from Costco is plenty good for me.

I am frequently chastised for adding waaaay too much to the garlic cheese bread on pasta night. It’s so damn good

I growing basel every year been doing it for decades.....make sure to pinch the tops trying to flower keep picking leaves all summer making pesto come fall pick all the leaves and make batches for a meal in small plastic bags and freeze have enough to use all winter until the next summer....

Have a couple plant started for planting end of this May outside !

the ice cube tray for freezing pesto works great! simply throw a cube in to the pasta once drained. too easy