Pesto is heavenly in pasta. And healthy too. A Pesto pasta is truly for everybody, vegetarian or not, young or old. But there are just a couple of things that prevents some people from having it as often as they'd like to. Like me. And here they are:
1) No food processor or blender - this is one piece of equipment that you need in making pesto in order to chop and mix all the ingredients with ease.
Solution 1: Use dried basil (usually in spice bottles and can be bought in grocery stores). Dried basil is already chopped finely so all you have to do is mix with the other ingredients. One bottle of dried basil is approximately P45 to P50 pesos.
Solution 2: Buy the bottled or ready to serve pesto which is far too expensive than making your own (around P120 to 250 pesos per small bottle). Which leads us to the next problem...2) Expensive ingredients - one main ingredient for making pesto is evoo or extra-virgin olive oil. As we all know, this is one of the healthiest and also one of most expensive cooking oil. But if you're only making pesto, it's worth buying since the smallest bottle (usually at P120 pesos per 250ml bottle) takes a long way to go and you can make lots of pesto from it. Some other expensive ingredients are the nuts (gives added flavor and texture to the pesto), the toppings (shrimp, olives, bacon and grilled chicken breast fillet are commonly used in restaurants) and the Parmesan cheese.
Solution for the evoo: I cannot think of any solution for the evoo. If we substitute it with just olive oil, it's just less expensive by a few amounts. Canola oil, mustard seed oil and sesame oil is cheaper but the taste will surely be different. Vegetable oil will not be as healthy. So I suggest we stick with the evoo :)
Solution for the nuts: Use cheaper nuts. Replace those almonds and pistachios. Cashews and even peanuts are just fine. Nuts are just optional ingredients pesto can live without. So you can just delete this if you'd like.
Solution for the toppings: Don't put any toppings at all! The pesto alone can surely make a great pasta. But if you have left-over bacon, ham, chorizo, or fried chicken, pesto is also very kind to allow them in. Dried fish (tuyo or tinapa) can also be used.
Solution for the Parmesan cheese: There's nothing compared to the texture that Parmesan cheese can give. And aside from that, it just adds salty flavor to the dish. Other types of firm cheeses are still very expensive and hard to find. So I suggest that instead of putting cheese, just put additional salt until it fits your taste.
THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION: Below is my own recipe of pesto pasta which I bet is the simplest recipe that you could ever find in making Pesto Pasta. Why? 'Coz it's as easy as 1-2-3! Pesto! I mean...presto! My Instant Pesto Linguine.
Ingredients:
- 1 medium bowl of cooked or Left-over linguine pasta (or any pasta will do)
- 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil leaves
- 1 tablepoon of evoo
- salt & pepper to taste
The two main ingredients: Evoo & dried basil leaves |
Directions:
1) Sprinkle the basil and drizzle the evoo on top of the pasta. Season with a dash of salt and pepper.
2) Microvawe for 2 minutes.
3) Stir all together and enjoy!
This is not the actual photo (to be updated) Unfortunately, I wasn't able to control myself that I ate the finished product all up... ...before I remembered to give it a flash :D |
There you go, with this I bet you can already have your daily serving of Pesto pasta. You can cook in advance a bigger amount of pasta, like one 400 grams pack (this is approximately sold at P50 pesos in grocery stores) and keep it in the fridge so you can just do this over and over again everyday until you consumed them all :)
Godetevi il buon cibo! (Enjoy the good food!)
For the traditional way of making pesto in a pesto pasta dish, view one of my favorite cooking websites. Click here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/06/pasta-with-pesto-cream-sauce/
For the traditional way of making pesto in a pesto pasta dish, view one of my favorite cooking websites. Click here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/06/pasta-with-pesto-cream-sauce/