Pesto Pasta

Don't Make These Mistakes

Never heat the pesto.

Keep a mug of pasta water back before draining.

Cool the pine nuts or they turn the basil dark.

How to Make Pesto Pasta

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1. Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan for 3 minutes, until pale gold. Tip them onto a cold plate to cool while you pound the garlic.

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2. Pound the garlic and pesto salt to a paste in a mortar.

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3. Add the pine nuts and pound to a rough paste.

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4. Add the basil a handful at a time and grind it against the sides until it breaks down.

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5. Work in the cheese, then trickle in the olive oil, stirring rather than pounding.

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6. Stir in the lemon juice and pepper.

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7. Boil the pasta in well-salted water until al dente, then reserve a mugful of the water and drain.

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8. Tip the pasta into a warm bowl, off the heat.

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9. Add the pesto and 4 tbsp of the cooking water and toss hard for 30 seconds, adding more water until it coats every piece.

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10. Serve at once, with more cheese at the table.

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What's Going On Here

Pesto is never cooked. Add it to the pasta off the heat and loosen it with the starchy cooking water, which emulsifies the oil into a sauce that clings — heat it in the pan and the basil turns khaki and bitter and the cheese goes stringy. Keep a mugful of the cooking water back before you drain; it is the only thing that turns pesto from a paste into a sauce.

After You've Cooked It

Pesto keeps 4 days refrigerated under a film of oil, and freezes 3 months.

Swaps and Variations

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

Good With

• Garlic bread
• A tomato salad
• Cold white wine

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Focaccia Genovese, Rosemary Focaccia, Tuscan Panzanella.

What's in a Serving

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.

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