Fresh Pesto Sauce | Mortar & Pestle

Mortar & Pestle Fresh Pesto Sauce

Let’s make a delicious fresh pesto sauce recipe in the Mortar and Pestle. 

Today we will discover the secret to elevating your dishes with the most delicious and freshest Homemade Pesto Sauce Recipe. 

We’ll be using a mortar and pestle today, but you can also make this recipe in a food processor. The mortar and pestle takes a little more effort, but it does tend to release flavors in extraordinary ways, and it’s really fun to use. I actually did a review of this mortar and pestle recently. You can click here and check it out: 

Mortar & Pestle | Review

Now for the recipe.

Pesto Sauce | Recipe

First we’ll peel four garlic cloves. Cut off the ends of the garlic. And then cut the garlic in half. And if there’s a bigger piece, just cut that into a quarter.

Now let’s take all of the cloves of garlic and put them into the mortar. Add just a pinch of salt to it. Now we’re going to crush the garlic in the mortar and pestle until it’s paste-like.

Mortar & Pestle Technique

Holding the pestle loosely with your dominant hand, you will let it drop into the mortar repeatedly. Let the weight of the pestle do the majority of the work for you. You don’t have to muscle it. The mortar and pestle will do the work.

Now you can see that it’s kind of turning into somewhat of a paste, but it’s still in pieces. So we’re going to start swirling it with the pestle. Swirling and dragging.

Again, I am really letting the weight of the pestle do the action here. I’m not working hard at all, which is the fun of it. It’s very nicely turning into a garlic paste in about 1 to 2 minutes. If you get a good mortar and pestle you’re letting the weight of the pestle go down into the mortar. You’re just guiding it.

Pesto Sauce | Back to the Recipe

Next we’re going to take a bunch of basil leaves. You will add those into the mortar in about 3 to 4 rounds, crushing and pounding down the leaves until they become part of the paste.

This is mostly going to be a dragging and swirling action with the pestle. The aromas happening at this point are incredible. It should turn into a lovely paste.

Now we add in three tablespoons of pine nuts, one tablespoon at a time. These you are going to pound. Pound them into the paste. Then you swirl. They’re combining really nicely. I think if you tried to muscle using the pestle, you’d feel it really quickly. Just relax and let the pestle drop with gravity.

Next you’re going to finely grate two ounces of the parmesan cheese of your choice, with a really good cheese grater. Something in the parmesan cheese family. The easiest way to do this is to grate it on to a food scale.

Now we’re going to incorporate the cheese into the paste. Just one handful at a time. The cheese is, by the way, a very light and fluffy consistency. And that is from shredding it ourselves. When you do store bought shredded cheese, it also has other things in it so that it doesn’t clump So it does get a little harder. This is so soft and beautiful. So if you’re out of time you can absolutely do store bought. But this is totally preferable.

So as the paste gets thicker, it is a little more work to kind of get things off the sides So you have to be really cognizant to let the pestle be loose in your hand because you’re going to want to muscle it a little bit, and you don’t have to.

Next we’re going to add in two tablespoons of lemon juice to the paste until it’s fully mixed in.

Then, we’re going to use a half a cup of olive oil and slowly drizzle in small amounts until it’s been fully emulsified into the mixture. I would say you should just have a spoon handy just to get the mixture off the sides and continue to incorporate it together.

Pesto Sauce | How Does It Taste?

It is so amazing! There are so many flavors. It’s like wave after wave of flavors. For me, the first is the the cheese and the oil, and then the garlic hits me. Then the pine nuts. And then the basil. Hit after hit after hit, wave after wave of taste. This is out of this world. It’s so fresh. I’ve never had pesto sauce like this. 

I recently made a video on how  to make Spaghetti Squash you can add this pesto sauce to, which you can view here:

Spaghetti Squash Noodle Recipe

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!