This green garlic pesto is delicious, flavorful, and healthy. You can prepare it in just a few seconds, and the green parsley leaves retain all their nutrients and vitamins. This can be a salad dressing, a pasta sauce, a spreadable cream, topping for steaks or vegetables, and a marinade for various meats. Here’s an idea for use: as a topping for a baked steak with potatoes and vegetables. The small piles of parsley cream with garlic add flavor to the whole dish!
The recipe for pesto sauce with basil and garlic is a recipe from Italian. Traditionally, pesto is made in a mortar, hence its name: “pesta” is the past participle of the Italian verb “pestare” (in translation, “to crush”. The most famous is “pesto alla Genovese” from northern Italy, made from basil leaves, pine buds, Parmesan, pecorino, garlic, and olive oil.
The basil leaves were washed, dried, and put in a mortar, along with garlic and coarse salt. They were crushed until a creamy consistency was obtained. In the end, grated Parmesan and pecorino cheese and olive oil were added.
The pesto sauce is delicious, perfect for pasta or salads, ideal for giving a fresh taste to food. It is easy and quick to prepare. We can serve it with any pasta we prefer or with bruschettas, potatoes, beef, etc. We can also prepare pesto sauce in other variants, replacing pine buds with nuts, white almonds, or hazelnuts.
Green garlic is milder than regular garlic, and it has a light onion flavor. You can eat green garlic raw, although the taste is quite sharp then, and at the same time, it has all the nutritional benefits of fully-grown garlic.
I decided on using the green garlic to make a quick pesto with fresh basil. All you have to do is add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend for a few minutes until you have a delicious green pesto.
You can find pesto sauce at any supermarket. Still, if you want to enjoy a healthy and authentic Italian version of it, in which you know what ingredients you are using, this recipe is precisely what you need.
Green Garlic Pesto
Necessary equipment:
- a food processor
- 1 medium pan
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 2 green garlic, both stems, and bulbs
- 1/4 cup of fresh basil leaves
- 1/3 cup of olive oil
- 1/3 cup of filtered water
- 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
- optional: 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
Instructions:
- Heat a small pan and roast the pine nuts until they get slightly brown.
- Cut off the root ends of the garlic bulbs.
- Cut the remaining bulbs in half, and the garlic stems into 2 inch long pieces.
- Add all ingredients to a food processor and pulse for 30 seconds or as much as needed until the pesto reaches the desired consistency. Add more lemon juice if it’s too thick.
- If you are not avoiding dairy, you can add parmesan cheese to the mixture.
Eat the pesto immediately, or store it in a jar with a lid in the refrigerator (cover the surface with a bit of olive oil so that it does not oxidize).