GO! Pesto™ - How To Make Pesto Sauce Stick To Pasta (2024)
by Michael Hawkins
Short answer The most effective way to make a sauce stick to pasta is to buy pasta that has been made using a "bronze die." It will be a bit more expensive than you might be used to, but this kind of pasta has a rough surface, whichmeans sauces can't help but stick to it.
Long answer When trying to make pesto (or any sauce for that matter) stick to pasta, the biggest gains are to be had from buying the right kind of pasta.
The dried stuff you find in the supermarket is made from a simple semolina and water dough thathas been extruded through a die and shaped. Budget pasta will have been extruded through an aluminium or Teflon die, resulting in a smooth surface texture. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but the premium pasta in your local deli will almost always have been extruded through a bronze die. This results in a rough texture that dramatically increases the surface area of the pasta, thereby ensuring maximum stickiness.
The shape of your pasta is crucial too. While thick, ragù-style sauces are bold enough to stand up to big shapes like pappardelle and rigatoni, with pesto, you want shapes like fusilli or trofie, which have plentiful bends, grooves, twists, and troughs. These provide your pesto with the maximum number of places to hide.
As for the sauce itself, well, pesto is naturally pretty good at clinging to pasta. The secret to making it even stickier is to mix it with a little bit of the water you cooked your pasta in. This water is bursting with starch and acts as an emulsifier and a thickener, giving you the best possible chance of serving a restaurant-quality dish.
Before draining the pasta, reserve some of the starchy pasta water. Then, add 1/4 cup of this pasta water back into the pot with your pesto, and stir to thin the pesto. Toss in the cooked pasta, and mix until the pesto thoroughly coats it.
The most effective way to make a sauce stick to pasta is to buy pasta that has been made using a "bronze die." It will be a bit more expensive than you might be used to, but this kind of pasta has a rough surface, which means sauces can't help but stick to it.
Once the pasta is in the sauce, add pasta water. This is the most vital step in the process. Starchy pasta water doesn't just help thin the sauce to the right consistency; it also helps it cling to the pasta better and emulsify with the fat and cheese you're going to be adding.
PESTO SHOULD NEVER BE “COOKED”. If you cook Pesto Sauce, you change the make up of the fresh basil and cause it to turn darker in color. It is best to warm it up and use it at room temperature. If it needs to be thinned out, you can do so by adding a little water, chicken stock, cream or white wine.
Yes, pesto can be used straight from the jar and doesn't require cooking or heating. In fact, we actively discourage applying too much heat to pesto, as this will destroy many of the fresh flavours that producers work so hard to retain.
Use it as a spread for sandwiches, paninis and crostini toast appetizers. Drizzle on caprese salads of fresh basil, cherry tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. Bake up a pesto pizza or a colorful Italian-inspired flatbread. Finish grilled meats and seafood, roasted vegetables and breakfast eggs.
Flavored salt is one of the quickest ways to upgrade any store-bought pesto since you just sprinkle, mix, and you're ready to serve. You don't want to oversalt the pesto, of course, so start by dusting a very small amount and add more to the pesto to taste. Garlic salt is a fantastic choice.
Just before draining the pasta, keep a little cup of the cooking water on the side. You can then pour the drained pasta in a bowl and toss with the pesto and the cooking water. Adding cooking water will thin out the pesto so it coats everything nicely and creates a pesto sauce that coats every bit of pasta.
For oil-based sauces, use pasta water as a binder to help sauces coat the noodles. Do not rinse your pasta. The only time you should rinse your pasta in cold water is when you plan on creating a cold pasta dish or pasta salad. Rinsing the pasta will cool it down quickly and prevent the noodles from sticking.
By adding uncooked noodles and a little extra liquid into the sauce, you end up with a simple and delicious meal made in just one pot. It's really important to make sure there's enough extra liquid added to your sauce so the spaghetti cooks properly.
The primary ingredients in pesto — basil and olive oil — are sensitive to heat. Basil can lose its vibrant color and fresh flavor when exposed to high temperatures, turning it a darker, more muted green. Olive oil can also lose some of its health benefits and can develop a bitter taste when heated excessively.
In Italy, you'll find that chefs use just enough pesto to coat the pasta, and they certainly don't allow the dish to drown in it. As a very rough guide, your pesto should weigh about 2/3 the weight of the dried pasta you are cooking.
Add a pinch of salt if the basil tastes too bitter or the pesto needs more zing. Add more Parmesan if you'd like a creamier/cheesier pesto. If desired, you can thin out the pesto with more olive oil.
That secret ingredient is… ::drumroll:: lemon juice! I find that the lemon juice flavors the pesto really well, helps stretch the liquid without adding more oil, and also adds an element of freshness to the sauce.
When you feel like your jarred pesto is missing robustness, don't hesitate to add some minced garlic into the mix. There's likely some garlic already in the jar, and minced or grated garlic is often the same size as the little Parmesan pieces (so it combines quite easily).
For pesto sauces, use about one jar of 5.6-ounce sauce for a 16-ounce package of pasta. The amount of pesto sauce needed for pasta per person would be about . 75 ounces of sauce for each 2 ounce (about 1 cup cooked) serving of pasta.
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