A Festival of Pesto

According to James Peterson, author of Sauces, the word pesto is based on the Italian word for using a pestle. He writes, “Any mixture ground to paste with a mortar and pestle or a food processor can be called a pesto.” That sounds like a call for experimentation to me! While it is true that you can throw almost anything in a food processor and a sauce of sorts will result, we might want to simplify our experiment with a little structure.

The familiar Genovese version uses basil, cheese, oil, pine nuts, garlic and some salt. So let’s start there. Begin with an herb or vegetable, add nuts or seeds and garlic, then decide if you want cheese. Finish by adding oil and seasoning with salt. For vegan versions, just add more nuts and a bit more oil.

If you have been stocking up on beans, pasta and rice, pesto will be your savior for flavoring those staples over the winter. Freeze jars and jars of it. Freeze it in Tupperware or, my preference, wide-mouth Ball jars. Round-shouldered jars can break in the freezer. Freezing pesto in muffin tins or ice cube trays also works well. Once frozen, you can pop it out of the muffin tins and store it in larger containers or bags. Pesto should be eaten within three days if refrigerated, but it will keep for several months in the freezer.