Pesto di Limone | Italian Lemon Pesto Recipe

Everyone is familiar with the famous Pesto alla Genovese, the classic basil pesto from Liguria. A lesser-known and highly underrated example of another kind of pesto is lemon pesto, or “Pesto di Limone.”

Pesto di Limone | Italian Lemon Pesto Recipe

This condiment has an incredible, refreshing taste that we personally find more delicious than normal pesto alla Genovese (which is saying a lot). It’s fantastic as a pasta sauce, but will also work brilliantly in a sandwich or on bruschette.

A Note on Quantity

Basil pesto should never be made in a blender, if possible. It’s always better to make it in a mortar and pestle. This lemon pesto is an exception for a few reasons. For starters, it only uses a relatively small amount of basil so it isn’t quite as susceptible to the phenomenon where a blender slightly “cooks” the herbs and changes the flavor.

A more practical reason is that all of the lemon flavor comes from lemon peel, which is pretty darn hard to mash by hand. A blender will save you a lot of time and effort, with minimal undesired side effects in this case.

The downside to using a blender is that, depending on the design of your model, it can be difficult to make pesto in small quantities as many blender blades have a hard time gripping ingredients if there isn’t enough mass in the bowl. Luckily, this pesto is so delicious that it’s worth making a bigger batch anyway!

Below we’ve given what we’ve found to be the minimum quantity of pesto that an average blender can make, but you may find that you need to scale it up further if your model struggles.

How to Peel the Lemons

All of the lemon flavor comes from lemon peel, rather than juice. Be sure to use organic lemons to avoid directly eating pesticides.

Carefully peel the lemons with a sharp paring knife, shaving off just the yellow part and avoiding the bitter white pith. If you accidentally peel some white pith off, you can scrape it off the yellow peel with your knife.

Watch the Pasta Grammar video:

PESTO DI LIMONE RECIPE

Cook Time: 15 minutes

For this recipe, you will need:

• 5 tablespoons (50 g) pine nuts

• The yellow peels of 2 large lemons (see above)

• 4.5 ounces (130 g) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

• 10 to 12 fresh basil leaves

• 4 tablespoons (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil

• Salt

In a small pan over medium heat, toast the pine nuts until they begin to brown. Add them into the blender bowl along with the lemon peels, Parmigiano cheese, and basil. Blend until the pesto is smooth and uniform.

Keep the pesto in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

To use the pesto as a pasta sauce, place about ¼ cup (60 ml) of pesto per serving (around 80 to 100 g) of pasta in a mixing bowl. Stir in a little bit of pasta water to create a creamy sauce. Transfer cooked, al dente pasta into the bowl and stir all together. Optionally, serve the pasta topped with grated lemon zest.

Buon appetito!