Pesto Sauce for pasta (Tagliatelle)

By Joschef

Tagliatelle with Pesto Pesto can be made in a food processor, but is best made in a pestle and mortar because pounding and bruising the basil leaves seems to extract more of the beautiful flavour.

Ingredients

• For the pesto sauce:
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
• 3 good handfuls of fresh basil, leaves picked
• 1 handful of pine nuts, lightly toasted
• 1 good handful of Parmesan cheese,
• freshly grated extra virgin olive oil
• sea rock salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• a small squeeze of lemon juice (optional)

Preparation

Step 1

Put your garlic in a pestle and mortar or a food processor. If you like a strong garlic taste you can add bore but I stick to about 1 clove, which is still quite strong when raw. Pound or pulse this with your fresh basil leaves. Add the cooled, golden toasted pine nuts to the mixture and pound or pulse gently for a few seconds. Turn out into a bowl and add half of the Parmesan. Gently stir this in the add the olive oil - just enough to bind the sauce to get it to the right semi-wet but firm consistency.

Taste the mixture, then add a little salt and pepper and the rest of the cheese. Add some more oil and taste again. Keep adding a little bit of this and a little bit more of that until you get it right - this is the best way to make pesto. There are no real rules, but as long as you make it fresh and use the best ingredients it’ll always taste superb! When you taste it for the last time, it might need a squeeze of lemon juice. Lemon juice isn’t listed in all recipes but is quite nice, as it brings the fragrance of the basil out.