GO! Pesto™ - Shiso Pesto - World's Most Expensive Pesto (2024)

FAQs

GO! Pesto™ - Shiso Pesto - World's Most Expensive Pesto? ›

The most expensive pesto

A pesto sauce contains pine nuts. They cost more than the ingredients of a regular pasta sauce, that is tomatoes. So, the difference in the cost of the final pasta sauces.

While traditional pesto alla Genovese typically includes non-vegetarian cheeses (including Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Sardo), pesto by nature invites interpretation - feel free to substitute the traditional cheese for a vegetarian alternative.

Pesto is flavorful and bright and can liven up vegetables, pizza, potatoes and pasta. It's also high in healthy fats, which help keep you satisfied. Fat may be higher in calories, but it also takes longer to digest (read: satisfying) and allows your body to absorb fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E and K.

'Genoese pesto') is a paste made of crushed garlic, pine nuts, salt, basil leaves, grated cheese such as Parmesan or pecorino sardo, and olive oil. It originated in the Italian city of Genoa, and is used to dress pasta and sometimes soups.

As long as it forms part of a diverse diet with plenty of vegetables, fibre, and moderate levels of protein and dairy, there's absolutely no need to worry about pesto being bad for you. It's packed full of nutrients and healthy fats, which are needed in a well-balanced diet.

As you would expect, pesto's wider variety of ingredients means it does slightly better in the vitamin and mineral stakes. Pesto outsmarts tomato sauce in many of these, but the pasta sauce still provides a sizeable chunk of your recommended daily targets.

Still, the most famous pesto—and the one we tend to think of when we hear the word—is pesto alla genovese.

Italian Tradition

Pesto is the perfect sauce to enjoy with a dish of trofie (the traditional Ligurian short pasta), lasagna, potato gnocchi or as a topping for a bowl of minestrone. It can be mixed into tomato sauce to enhance the flavor of pasta dishes or used with fish fillets to make them more appetizing.

Pesto originated in Liguria, Italy, where pesto is made in a mortar and pestle. (In fact, “pestâ” means “to pound.”) I don't have the patience to crush basil by hand, one handful at a time.

Is pesto good for the liver? ›

Good news! The weeds in the garden can contribute to this delicious pesto that provides nourishing phyto-nutrients to support our liver health. This pesto goes well on crackers, in pasta dishes, or with vegetable sticks.

When you compare our pesto to classic Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise, there is no doubt that ours is lower in fat and calories, higher in nutrients, and, we think, a lot tastier too! Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise contains over 700 calories per 100g, while our sauces generally clock in around half of that. So, 1-0 to pesto.

In moderate quantities, there is nothing in most pesto sauces that should cause any major concern for diabetics. We do, however, advise anyone living with diabetes to always read the label and keep an eye on the levels of salt, carbohydrates, and sugar, as they can vary widely between similar looking products.

While you can freeze pesto in full-batch amounts, it is also convenient to freeze pesto in smaller portions to be used as quick flavor-enhancers (without being the full flavor force of the dish)—swirl in soups or stir into salad dressings, or add a dollop to a bowl of rice.

Pizza pesto Genovese is a variety of Italian pizza that is traditionally topped with pieces of mozzarella and the famous pesto sauce. The pizza is typically finished off with a drizzle of olive oil before serving.

The word pesto comes from the Italian 'pestare', meaning 'to pound, or crush', or indeed to 'pestle', and is of course also cognate to our noun 'pestle' (Italian: 'pestello', Latin: 'pistillum') – so there is absolutely no need to ever again get confused about which is the pestle and which is the mortar (Italian: ' ...

On average store-bought pesto costs less. Depending where you live, the ingredients for pesto Genovese can set you back quite a bit. Good olive oil doesn't come cheap, and neither do pine nuts. Alas, using cheap -or worse, substitute - ingredients is not an option.

Homemade basil pesto is a wonderfully versatile and tasty sauce/spread made from a handful of flavorful ingredients. It comes together in minutes and tastes worlds better than store-bought because it's so fresh.

While homemade and store-bought pesto sauces can vary in nutrition facts, pesto is generally a rich source of healthy fats. Because it is made with nutritious ingredients, pesto can be consumed as part of a balanced diet. It is also part of the Mediterranean Diet.

Classic pesto is renowned for its bright-green brilliance and for being one of the few Italian sauces that isn't touched by heat during preparation. With pesto, coarseness is key—after all, the term pesto is derived from the Italian word pestare, which translates to grind or crush.