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From Silvia Colloca's Sicilian red pesto with penne and Mark Olive's warrigal greens pesto to walnut pesto salad, there's a bounty of ways to enjoy the comforting combination of pesto and pasta (and if you don't have a mortar and pestle or blender, don't worry, we've even got a chopping board pesto for you).
THE CLASSIC
While there's , one of the acknowledged classics is Ligurian pesto (there's even a pesto world championship, the , held in Genoa). A proper Ligurian pesto usually has seven ingredients: basil, Parmigiano-Reggiano, pecorino, pine nuts, garlic, salt and olive oil, and is often served with trenette, a long thin pasta, or trofie, a short curly one, but other pasta make a lovely match too.
Silk handkerchief pasta with pesto (mandilli di seta)
If you love the idea of making pasta and pesto from scratch, this recipe, shared in that wonderful series Two Greedy Italians, with Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo, is for you. Tender pasta sheets are served up with a vibrant, fresh pesto, made in a mortar and pestle.
Silk handkerchief pasta with pesto (mandilli di seta)
This simple, fresh combination of pesto, potato and green beans with trenette, shared by Lucio Galletto in Italian Food Safari, is a classic dish from Liguria.
Trenette with pesto, potato and green beans
Ever wondered if pasta alla Genovese is another name for pasta with pesto from Genoa? The answer, as Adam Liaw explains when he shares his recipe for trofie al pesto in the first season of The Cook Up, is no. Pasta alla Genovese is actually a specialty of Naples, in Campania, and is a dish where the sauce is made with braised beef or veal. Trofie al pesto, on the other hand, is a classic pasta dish from Genoa, pairing the city's famous pesto with another Ligurian classic, a short, twisted pasta. This is Adam's version (which can be made with any short pasta, if you can't get your hands on trofie).
Adam Liaw's trofie al pesto Source: Danielle Abou Karam
HEAD SOUTH TO SICILY
While Liguria's bright, fresh, basil-based pesto is known across the world, it's far from the only kind of traditional pesto. The word 'pesto' means crushed or pounded, and there are many variations on the idea of a sauce made by combining nuts, herbs, cheese and oil using a mortar and pestle. One popular version is Sicilian pesto, often known as pesto alla Trapanese.
Sicilian pesto is made with tomato as well as basil, giving it a light red colour. In this version, shared in , Silvia Colloca has added ricotta, giving it a creamy texture.
Silvia's red lentil penne with Sicilian pesto Source: Cook like an Italian
PESTO PLUS (aka WITH ADDED VEG)
If you like the idea of adding more veg to your pesto, read on for Donna's Hay's broccoli pesto, a walnut pasta salad, and a pea, basil and mint pesto with penne that celebrates the best of spring.
A pasta that brings to head broccoli, almond and plenty of herbs, this recipe from Donna Hay is a great one for family meals. The pesto is made in a food processor, with almonds, basil, mint, parsley, lemon rind and juice, parmesan and extra virgin olive oil.
Another recipe from Silvia Colloca, this summer pasta salad combines a zucchini, basil and walnut pesto with pasta, chickpeas or beans, and zucchini flowers.
Farfalle salad with zucchini Source: Jono Fleming
Here, the lovely fresh pesto is made with peas (fresh or frozen), basil and mint, along with pine nuts and olive oil. For the 'cheesiness' element, you can use either grated parmesan or for a vegan version, nutritional yeast.
Spring vegetable penne with pea pesto Source: Savannah van der Niet
BEYOND BASIL
Basil is classic, but the possibilities for using other things with, or instead of, basil are endless. We're big fans of author Lindy Li's idea of a basic formula that you can change up to suit what you like, or have on hand - various herbs or greens; grated hard cheese; and any toasted nuts or seed:
READ MORE
How to make pesto from anything
Here are some ideas to inspire you:
Made with peanuts, Thai basil, Vietnamese mint, chilli, fish sauce, ginger and garlic, this pesto can be stirred through noodles, added to stir-fries or drizzled on a salad. You can experiment and play around adding your favourite Asian herbs to this recipe.
Thai basil pesto Source: Tammi Kwok
This recipe from Myf Warhurst swaps out the basil and uses a bunch of cavalo nero instead. There's no nuts in this recipe, so it's a good one if you can't have nuts, but it's still full of flavour, with garlic, parmesan and (optional) chilli.
Gnocchi with cavalo nero pesto Source: Adam Liaw
If you love rosemary, this recipe from Loving Gluten Free host Helen Tzouganatos is for you. Her pesto uses walnuts instead of pinenuts, rosemary instead of basil, and adds extra savoury deliciousness with a hint of anchovy.
Spiral pasta with walnut and rosemary pesto Source: Loving Gluten Free
TRAVEL THE WORLD
The word pesto may be Italian, but the appeal of a salty, savoury, herby paste is universal.
This 'green noodle' dish is a Peruvian favourite, with both spinach and basil used in the sauce, along with queso fresco (a soft fresh cheese).
Peruvian-style spaghetti pesto (tallarines verdes) Source: Chris Chen
There is SO MUCH deliciousness going on in this recipe, which comes from South African food writer and TV host Sarah Graham. She pan-fries the gnocchi after boiling to give them those gloriously crisp edges, and then tosses the golden gnocchi with a vibrant watercress pesto. You can use a range of nuts in this pesto - blanched almonds, hazelnuts or macadamias are all good.
Fried gnocchi with watercress pesto Source: Sarah Graham's Food Safari
This comes from lovely Irish chef Donal Skehan, and it's perfect for times when you don't have a mortar and pestle or food processor. The pesto is made simply by roughly chopping together tomato, basil, garlic and toasted pine nuts.
Donal's chopping board tomato and basil pesto pasta Source: Donal's Meals in Minutes
AND AN AUSSIE VERSION, TOO
Bring native Australian flavours into your pasta bowl.
Chef Mark Olive cooked this recipe in On Country Kitchen, using sorrel leaves and warrigal greens instead of basil, and adding extra flavour with ground saltbush and ground native mountain pepper.
Mark Olive's pasta with warrigal pesto. Source: On Country Kitchen
EVERYONE LOVES AVOCADO
Okay, so not everyone. But for those who do, take a look here at how avo can add a lovely creaminess to a pesto.
Up the pesto ante with some avo in this recipe from Brooke Blurton, which she shares in the new season of The Cook Up With Adam Liaw. The avocado is blended in with the other ingredients in the spinach and basil pesto, and roasted cherry tomatoes add sweet bursts of flavour to the bowl.
Pesto pasta with blistered baby vine tomatoes Source: Kitti Gould
MAKE AND BAKE
Pesto loves all kinds of pasta - including lasagna sheets!
This recipe brings together homemade lasagne sheets (though you could use bought fresh lasagna sheets), a lemony basil pesto and creamy bechamel, with the pesto taking the place of the usual meat filling.
Ligurian green lasagna (lasagna verde) Source: Chris Chen
More ways with pesto
Heirloom tomato galette with lemon balm almond pesto and chevre
