Hi, i used the serious eats recipe for pesto,
https://www.seriouseats.com/best-pesto-recipe
However, i blanched the basil before blending.
I also used a blender instead of manually pounding it.
My pesto now has a layer of oil on top – this was after i blended all ingredients.
Is this normal? I thought it should be fully emulsified before i top it off olive oil
by gnitiemh
6 Comments
> Hi, i used the serious eats recipe for pesto,
Then
> However, i blanched the basil before blending. I also used a blender instead of manually pounding it.
So you DIDN’T follow the recipe and it didn’t turn out right. Well, color me surprised.
/r/IDidntHaveEggs
I’ve had a bit of a layer of oil appear on top when making this recipe as well (using the pestle and mortar, not the blender), but after mixing it into pasta it was no issue whatsoever.
nobody can really tell you if it’s normal / if your pesto will turn out well unless they did the exact same thing you did, which, if they followed the recipe, they would not have.
I’m no expert, but the 2-3 times I’ve done pesto in a blender, I noticed it sliced/chopped more than grinded the leafy and nut ingredients, and I ended up drizzling more oil and maybe some liquid in there to help mix it as it all clogged up the narrow bottom, and I had to use a rubber spatula to scrape down to try to blend well, and it didn’t mix or emulsify well.
It’s like the greens were shredded very finely and made a weird clump and the oil just floated on top, until I added more nuts and cheese and liquid, but when it set the oil floated. I truly think a food processor works better due to the wider surface area not needing as much oil or liquid, and so the nuts aren’t broken up so finely to release their oils or to shred the basil or whatever veggie green into a paste.
The 2 times I’ve done it on the pestle or molcojete (mistake, hard to clean for pesto), the crushed greens and nuts seemed to hold onto oil and emulsify better.
Recently ran into a similar issue where I tried to use the blender part of my blender/processor mix to blend mushrooms for a mushroom pasta. It wouldn’t blend well, then parts got weirdly soggy from overblending, and it just looked really gross. If I’d used the food processor it would have been fine.
Why did you blanch the basil? Don’t do that, there’s a reason why pesto spills never be cooked: raw is how the flavors and aroma is best