If you’re making basil pesto in the food processor, stir the cheese in afterward, or pulse it gently. “Stirring it in allows you to bite into these nice little chunks of cheese,” Lincoln explains.

Hold back a quarter to a half of the nuts and add them at the end – again, so you’ll have little chunks to bite into.

Add the salt last, and not too much because it detracts from the other ingredients. You want just enough to bring out the flavor. If you can clearly taste salt, you’ve probably added too much.

Use coarse sea salt. Pulsing it into the pesto will add bursts of flavor.

Don’t blanch the basil. Blanching basil – or pressure cooking it so it can go into shelf-stable jars, as it’s done industrially – makes it taste “like canned spinach pesto,” Lincoln said. “People do that because they think it’s going to keep the pesto greener.”

Instead, add a touch of acid such as lemon juice, which helps keep the pesto from oxidizing and losing its color. n After you put the pesto into containers, pour a thin layer of oil over the top. Then press a sheet of plastic wrap onto it. Finally, seal the container. Covered this way and frozen, the pesto will last longer and maintain its quality.

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To add luscious creaminess to basil pesto, stir in a tablespoon or two of mascarpone.

Choose the best nut. Yes, pine nuts are expensive, but they are the creamiest nut and really do work best in basil pesto, according to Lincoln. Walnuts are too strong for basil pesto, she says, but they work well with arugula and Swiss chard. Lincoln uses almonds in her sweeter pestos, such as cilantro pesto and sun-dried tomato pesto, because they are a sweeter nut.

If you’ve tried making garlic scape pesto and it tasted horrible, you’re probably harvesting the scapes too late in the season, Lincoln said. “But one of the biggest mistakes (people make) is they use walnuts in it. Garlic scapes, that’s a strong pesto, and if you use pine nuts, it makes it nice and creamy.

Pesto lasts for a few months in the freezer, but not forever. Over time, the herbs will begin to lose their pungency. “The cheese takes over,” Lincoln said, “and you end up with a cheese bomb.”

– MEREDITH GOAD


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