Spaghetti with Basil Pesto Sauce Recipe

Damián

13 years ago

The first time I cooked pasta was tallarini al pesto using a dehydrated mix. An envelope with everything inside. It only took a few minutes: to mix everything with boiling water. I was still in school and for me it was a success to cook a pasta dish by myself. My parents used to by that mix for me and leave me alone at home without any worries for my lunch. Now, things have changed and what I like is to make a good pesto with fresh basil.

Changing the subject, but still related to the recipe, the Parmesan cheese in the photo was brought directly from Italy with some Neapolitan coffee. It was the price I asked for fixing the laptop of a frien of mine. Thank you!

Spaghetti with Basil Pesto Sauce Recipe

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Serves: 4 Time: 15 m Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

400 g of spaghetti
20 big basil leaves, washed and without stems
50 g of grated Parmesan cheese (or 25 g with 25 g of pecorino cheese)
25 g pine nuts
125 ml of extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove (or 2 if you like garlic), peeled, cut lengthwise and without the germ
Salt to taste.

Directions

Cook the pasta according to the directions in the packet, leaving them al dente.
While the pasta cooks, add to the blender the basil leaves, the grated cheese, the pine nuts, the garlic and a pinch of salt. Pour in the olive oil and mix until obtaining an homogeneous sauce.
Taste it, add more basil, garlic, nuts, etc… to your liking. Mix well again.
Drain the pasta, and mix it with the pesto sauce while still hot.
Done. Serve it immediately.

Hints, Tips, and Tricks

Take care of the amount of salt, as the cheese is already a little salty.
At the table, if you like, you can sprinkle more cheese.
You can use only Parmesan cheese or mix it half and half with pecorino cheese.
You can grate yourself the parmesan with a clean coffee grinder. To do that, cut the cheese very thinly (shavings) to prevent the grinder to block.
To succeed the pesto, it is important to use a very good and tasty extra virgin olive oil.
Add more or less garlic to your taste. I normally use only a garlic clove, not too big.
You can keep it in the fridge up to two weeks, in a container, closed and with a layer of oil on top to protect it.

Categories: easy recipe pasta recipe