The tip for the best pasta pesto
Sometimes, once you know something, it seems so logical that you can’t imagine ever doing it differently. This trick for the ultimate pasta pesto is one of those things.
Last week I came across an old article from Bon Appétit in which they share their recipe for the very best pesto. It’s always useful to have a good pesto up your sleeve, but my aha moment came at the bottom of the article, under the heading: ‘A note on the best pasta of your life.’ For the creamiest and most silky pasta pesto, add a knob of butter and a splash of cooking water.
Of course, I couldn’t think about anything else for the rest of the week and made it for lunch this weekend. And sure enough, it worked. A little butter makes the pasta extra glossy, beautiful and delicious. The butter also helps soften the flavour of the pesto, which can sometimes be rather intense because of the garlic, Parmesan and basil. You don’t need much: a teaspoon per person is enough, together with a splash of the pasta water.
Pasta trick
If you’re worried that a whole host of angry Italians will come after you now that you’re adding butter to your pasta, you can breathe easy. Italian cuisine is known for olive oil and a lack of butter, but above all for an abundance of flavour. In Italy, it’s therefore not at all unusual to be served a plate of pasta with sauce and a knob of butter on top in a restaurant. So, really, this trick applies to every pasta dish. I’ve also been adding a small knob of butter to my spaghetti aglio olio for years, so I don’t know why I had never made the connection with pasta pesto. What I do know is that I’ll never do it differently again—and hopefully neither will you.
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