Italian basil pesto is an easy, versatile summer sauce
The Peninsula
The last time I wrote about pesto, I got more than a few emails from readers who wanted to set the record straight. "Real pesto is made with basil, and only basil, no other greens," wrote one newsletter subscriber. "If you want to use other types of greens and nuts in your pesto, good for you," another reader wrote. "But I'll be making mine with only basil, pine nuts, olive oil, Parmesan and garlic."
The pesto I featured in the newsletter was a gorgeous mustard green and pecan number from cookbook author Julia Turshen. I love it because it's incredibly adaptable and fairly seasonless. But you know what? You all have convinced me: Seasonality is a feature of pesto, not a bug. With my basil growing tall, I pulled out Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Italian Cooking" to see what she had to say about the classic Genoese sauce.More Related News