Pesto sauce

Традиционный итальянский соус песто Pesto – classical sauce of Italian cuisine. For the first time sauce was made in a northern part of Italy, in the region Liguria. Residents of Italy were so delighted песто that even held the World Cup in preparation of the well-known sauce. Both professional cooks, and amateur culinary specialists participated in the championship.

The name песто comes from the words "pestato", "pestare" that in translation from Italian means "to trample down, press, pound". France cooks this sauce in Provence and call to "pist". Germany adds a ramson instead of a basil to sauce, and Austria manufactures it from pumpkin sunflower seeds ("pumpkin песто").

Classical pesto sauce is cooked only in a porcelain or marble mortar, pounding its main ingredients manually a wooden pestle.

Nutrition value of pesto sauce

Hundred grams of the sauce made according to the classical recipe contain 4,5 mg of RR vitamin, 1,4 mg of B12 vitamin, 0,3 mg of vitamin E, 2,8 mg of vitamin C, 19 mkg of B9 vitamin, 0,4 mg of vitamin A. In песто phosphorus (540 mg), potassium (100 mg), sodium (860 mg), magnesium (50 mg), calcium (1005 mg), manganese (0,1 mg), copper (70 mkg) and zinc (4 mg) contains.

Recipes of pesto sauce

The most widespread recipe of pesto sauce includes pine nuts, garlic, a green basil, parmesan and olive oil. In some areas of Italy add dried or fresh tomatoes to it, and supplement solid parmesan with sheep cheese. There are recipes of pesto sauce without use of pine nuts or recipes where pine nuts replace with almonds. In addition to classical components, add spinach, arugula, fennel to this sauce, peanut or walnut. True pesto sauce is impossible without obligatory and irreplaceable product – olive oil of a cold extraction.

Recipe of preparation of classical pesto sauce

To place four bunches of leaves of a basil in a mortar. To add a salt pinch (for preservation of color of sauce), two-three garlic gloves and one dessertspoon of pine nuts or nuts of a stone pine. Then it is necessary to pound the added ingredients at first at very slow speed, and then, gradually increasing speed, to enter parmesan mix, pekorino and grated cheese (on three dessertspoons). When mix begins a creamy and smooth, thin stream to enter two hundred grams of olive oil. Further it is necessary to mix sauce very carefully. For giving of acid taste it is possible to add in песто one-two tablespoons of juice of a lemon.

Pesto sauce is stored in the refrigerator. That the made sauce was stored long, it is necessary to fill in its surface with olive oil. It will protect components песто from hit of air and will increase the term of its storage. Классический рецепт соуса песто

Use of pesto sauce

Fill with sauce the most various dishes. Pesto sauce can be added to macaroni, to smear it on bread, to dip in it vegetables. Cod fillet or a salmon is greased with pesto sauce and baked in an oven to readiness. With песто fillet of fish turns out juicy and very gentle to taste.

This sauce is filled in any salad instead of vegetable oil and mayonnaise. Pesto excellently supplements baked or fried meat. Quite often it is used as marinade. The mutton prepared on a grill will be juicy and gentle if before frying to cover it песто. From vegetables pesto sauce is best of all combined with paprika and eggplants, especially if it is tomato песто. Italy greases with sauce each layer of traditional Italian multilayer pie.

Pesto is also used in sandwich-type cakes and sandwiches, and also in ham, cheese and tomatoes pizza. Pesto sauce perfectly replaces traditional tomato sauce for pizza.

Ready sauce is on sale in shops in small glass jars. But, of course, freshly cooked sauce has more saturated taste and aroma.

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