Fred Plotkin
Fred Plotkin, an award-winning expert on Italian cooking and all things Italian, is the author of several cookbooks, including Recipes From Paradise: Life and Food on the Italian Riviera.
If you’re like most North Americans, you think of sunny Mediterranean pesto, that wonderful blend of fresh basil, nuts, cheese and olive oil, as a sauce for pasta. But in Italy, where it comes from, it is known as a “condimento”—and is not only added to pasta, but also to vegetables and soups. Pesto is highly versatile. This often high-fat, high-calorie sauce can be made healthier…less expensive…and without common allergens. There are many variations of pesto, according to Fred Plotkin, an award-winning expert on Italian cooking and author of several cookbooks, including the well-known book Recipes From Paradise: Life and Food on the Italian Riviera (Little, Brown), which focuses on food from the Liguria region of Italy, where pesto originated. He shared the secret of making great pesto…and some of his favorite variations…
In Italian, pesto means “I pound,” which is why cooks from Liguria share a method of preparing this pungent sauce. Rather than using a food processor or blender, which creates heat that damages the ingredients, they favor a mortar and pestle, which creates a wonderfully nubbly textured pesto. With a mortar and pestle, you can use about half the olive oil (one-quarter cup rather than the one-half cup or more that usually is called for when using a blender). Even though olive oil is healthful, using less of it translates to fewer calories. Mortar and pestles are sold in kitchenware stores and online for about $12 to $40.
Nuts: Pine nuts, from the cones of pine trees native to Italy, are a classic pesto ingredient. Imported Italian pine nuts are expensive, about $36 a pound. Other less expensive, but delicious, choices: Ligurians sometimes use walnuts for a nutty, less sweet pesto than that with pine nuts, and Sicilians make a pesto using almonds. You can use either raw or roasted nuts.
Cheese: In Italy, several cheeses are used for pesto, including Parmigiano and pecorino, made from sheep’s milk. Pecorino is a good choice because many people don’t tolerate cheese made from cow’s milk.
All the varieties of pesto described here result in a thick and intensely flavored sauce. Fresh pesto is best used the day it is made.