Green dreams: Top pesto brands tested
Blended with pine nuts grown in the region of Liguria, along with extra virgin olive oil and garlic, it is enriched with Parmesan cheese, sometimes Sardo from Sardinia or Pecorino, a hard ewe’s cheese.
There is oodles of flavour to put on the most basic pasta, bread and as a side sauce for fish. Having tested samples this week I also had success diluting with olive oil to use as a dressing for potatoes and salads.
We can make an untraditional pesto by blending wild garlic leaves with pine nuts, but also with other slightly fatty nuts such as cashews, walnuts or almonds. I have tried it with hazelnuts and even well ground it’s a bit too gritty and doesn’t suit pasta so well.
‘Pine-nut mouth’ has been identified as the odd metallic taste you can get in your mouth after eating a lot of pine nuts. As the price has gone up so much, it’s a second reason why pesto producers are using some cashews too. While testing I found no such effect, so perhaps it affects some more than others. Fresh pesto will keep in the fridge for a week and can be frozen.
Pecorino cheese is blended with a mix of almonds and pinenuts, fresh basil and olive oil. The mix is smooth and the taste of the cheese comes through with just the right amount of saltiness. The basil is fresh, the taste lively and it’s beautifully aromatic. Use it on pasta, on bread as an easy starter course, on gnocchi for an easy supper and drizzled onto plain lettuce to make a feast of a salad. Excellent! Made twice a week at Delitaly, Marlboro Street, Cork.
Score: 9
The second of our freshly made samples, this one has plenty of bright fresh green basil, blended with cashews.
This is the chunkiest of the samples, the nuts left with quite a bite to them. The basil is fresh and lively. The aged Grana Padano is a worthy alternative to Parmesan and often used, coming from the north of Italy where the use of the name is protected by the DOP system and where in Genoa basil pesto originated. The texture is deliciously creamy and a little grainy. Gorgeous! From Real Olive stalls countrywide.
Score: 8.5
A creamy texture, it has 44.5% sunflower oil blended with 1% extra virgin olive oil so the mixture doesn’t resonate with flavourful oil. Grana Padano and Pecorino cheese, which is also slightly creamy, helps the texture. The laticello in polvere on the label is powdered buttermilk which may add to the firm texture. The taste is not as lively as fresh versions but it’s a pleasant topping for bread.
Score: 7.5
There is more sunflower oil in this pesto than olive oil and it provides a light mix, but also a less satisfying taste. The basil is zinging with freshness which is very good for a bottled pesto. Potato flakes come further up the list of ingredients than pine nuts so we get a less chunky and less gritty mix which is not what we expected.
Available in speciality food shops and Sheridans Cheesemongers. I found it in The Roughty Foodie, English Market, Cork.
Score: 6.75
Extra virgin olive oil, Parmesan, pine nuts and Pecorino make up the typical list of ingredients here which work quite well, but there is no zing of aromatic basil. Bamboo fibre provides a stalky texture, or perhaps the basil was a bit leathery before being blended. The result is a mild, pleasant product lacking in the typical fresh, liveliness of other pesto samples. Produced in Italy.
Score: 5.75
Good flavours are not quite as full as fresh samples and the texture is a bit grainy, as if the basil used was tough before being blended. A mix of cashews and pine kernels, garlic and Pecorino cheese, there is also carrot fibre which may account for the fibrous texture. Still, it is an acceptable product which is correctly named as ‘green’ rather than traditional Genovese.
Score: 7
Extra virgin olive oil, sunflower oil, cashew nuts, Grana padano cheese, pine nuts, Pecorino, sugar, sea salt, acidity regulator is lactic acid.
Sunflower oil dilutes the extra virgin olive oil and there is none of the expected, lovely creaminess of the nuts.There is a stalky, fibrous mix that is lacking in basil flavour.
There is added sugar which also perhaps softens the fresh taste of pesto. However, one of our tasters thought this the best of the non- fresh selection.
Score: 5.5
We liked the idea of using pesto from a squeezy bottle to get kids into the habit of using it as a butter substitute in a sandwich, as a dressing on salads and on crackers for a healthy topping. Sunflower oil and cashew nuts are blended with traditional Pecorino cheese with some pine kernels. There are additives such as potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate. and flavours which don’t quite fit our expectations. The result is a nice, slightly grainy texture, with little basil flavour. Made in Italy, available in supermarkets.
Score: 5.5
