Creamy Pesto Sauce

Creamy pesto sauce is a modern addition of pesto sauce. The creamy-based pesto sauce is a great alternative to the classic tomato base or creamy Alfredo sauce. This pesto sauce with cream provides a unique herbaceous flavor, which helps to bring unique flavors to various dishes made with this sauce.

If you are looking for an easy and precise recipe for homemade creamy pesto, this article will definitely help you. This article will present an easy creamy basil pesto sauce recipe with 5 versatile uses of this delicious sauce.

Additionally, our experts will mention how to make creamy pesto sauce without dairy. Therefore, we recommend reading this article from the beginning till the end to know A to Z about the recipe.

Creamy Pesto Sauce Ingredients

Ingredients of the pesto with heavy cream are familiar and easily available. Let us give you a precise ingredient list for the pesto cream sauce.

1. Fresh Basil Leaves – 2 cups
2. Minced Garlic – 2 cloves
3. Grated Parmesan Cheese – ½ cup
4. Pine Nuts – ¼ cup
5. Extra Virgin Olive Oil – ½ cup
6. Heavy Cream – ½ cup
7. Salt – ½ teaspoon (Adjust to your taste)
8. Ground Black Pepper – ½ teaspoon (Adjust to your taste)
9. Lemon Juice – 1 teaspoon (Optional)

How to Make Creamy Pesto Sauce at Home: 7 Easy Steps

Preparing the perfect homemade creamy pesto is simple if you get a proper guideline. We have divided the recipe into seven easy steps with useful tips. You can follow our guidelines to learn the recipe quickly. Anyway, let us discuss the steps of this recipe.

Step 1: Prepare the Ingredients

The easy pesto sauce recipe starts with preparing the ingredients. First, collect all the required ingredients. Then, make them ready to use in the recipe.

• Basil Leaves

• Take fresh basil leaves.
• Rinse the basils.
• If you want, you can cut them roughly for easy blending.
• Garlic

• Take two garlic cloves.
• Remove the peel.
• Then, wash them nicely.
• Now, mince the garlic nicely to prepare the best garlic and basil pesto.

Pro Tip 1: To mince the garlic, you will require a sharp knife. However, we have come up with an easy alternative. Experts suggest using a garlic press to mince the garlic quickly. 

• Pine Nuts

• Measure pine nuts in the required amount.
• Place a pan over medium heat.
• Roast the pine nuts for 5 minutes until you get a roasted flavor.

Pro Tip 2: Roasting helps to improve the flavor. But the roasting process is quite tricky. If you don’t know about the appropriate tools for roasting, you can get burnt flavor instead of roasted flavor. You can use these 3 useful kitchen tools to roast perfectly.

• A frying pan and wooden spoon for stovetop roasting.
• If you choose roasting in the oven, you should use a silicone baking mat to prevent sticking.
• After roasting, cooling is a necessary step. Hence, you can also use a cooling rack to allow proper air circulation for cooling.

• Parmesan Cheese

• Take a large cheese cube.
• Grate the cheese.
• Use ½ cup of grated parmesan cheese.

Pro Tip 3: To grate fresh or hard parmesan cheese, a fine grater is mandatory. You can use pre-grated parmesan cheese to avoid the hassle of grating the cheese. 

Step 2: Prepare the Pesto Base

After preparing the ingredients for use, it’s time to prepare the base of the creamy green sauce.

• Combine the fresh basil, garlic, roasted pine nuts, and parmesan cheese.
• Blend them nicely until you get a paste-like texture.

Pro Tip 4: People used mortar and pestle to make pesto sauce during the ancient period. This is time-consuming and difficult. Do you want to reduce cooking time? We have a pro tip for you. You can use a food processor or blender to make the rich basil pesto. 

Step 3: Add Olive Oil & Blend

After getting a paste of basil, garlic, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese, you have to add olive oil dressing.

• Drizzle olive oil on the paste.
• Again, blend for 2 to 3 minutes to get a smooth paste dressing. 

Step 4: Add Cream & Blend

We are making the pesto with heavy cream. Therefore, you have to add some heavy cream to make the velvety pesto spread.

• Add the heavy cream and blend for two more minutes.
• If you want to avoid blending, you can mix manually.

Pro Tip 5: Do you want to get a smooth texture without blending the heavy cream with the pesto sauce base? Professionals suggest using a whisk to mix them nicely to get a smooth sauce. 

Step 5: Add Seasoning Ingredients

The thick pesto dip is almost ready. Now, it’s time to season the sauce using the required seasoning ingredients.

• Add salt, ground black pepper, and lemon juice to the pesto Alfredo.
• Give a nice mixture using a whisk.

Step 6: Final Touch

This step is optional. This step helps to get a customized flavor that suits your taste buds perfectly.

• Taste the sauce with a small portion.
• Then, adjust the seasoning ingredients according to your taste if required.

Note: You should use less amount of seasoning than the mentioned amount in the first seasoning step. Then, adjust after tasting the sauce.   

Step 7: Serve or Store

Finally, the Classic Italian pesto sauce is ready to serve.

• You can serve this yummy sauce with various dishes. We will tell you about the dishes that you can pair with this sauce in the next section. So, keep reading.
• Moreover, you can store this sauce for up to a week in a refrigerator. Keep the sauce in a glass jar, seal the jar, and place the jar in the refrigerator to store the sauce.

5 Best Uses for Creamy Pesto Sauce

Creamy pesto sauce has versatile uses. The fresh and unique flavors of the pesto sauce can replace the monotonous taste of traditional tomato sauce or white sauce. Let us discuss the uses of the creamy green sauce.

1. Pasta

Pasta with cream pesto is the classic pairing. Tossing the boiled pasta, spaghetti, or noodles with the creamy pesto sauce can be a quick and comfortable meal for you.

2. Chicken

The nutty and fresh flavors of delicious creamy basil pesto complement chicken dishes. Especially grilled or roasted chicken is the perfect pairing dish of the green pesto sauce. 

3. Pizza

Using the rich basil pesto as a pizza sauce instead of using traditional tomato-based pizza sauce is a great idea. Using the creamy pesto sauce brings a unique twist and improves the flavor profile. 

4. Roasted Vegetables

You can also enjoy roasted vegetables with the velvety pesto sauce. You can dip the roasted vegetables into the sauce as well as you can toss them with the sauce to enjoy healthy and tasty vegetables.

Note: Veggies like sweet potatoes, asparagus, coli flour, broccoli, zucchini, etc., pair the best with the pesto sauce with cream.

5. Sandwiches & Wraps

Using the parmesan pesto sauce for layering the sandwiches and wraps is also a good idea. This creamy sauce enhances the taste and smell of the sandwiches and wraps.

2 Magical Substitutes to Make Dairy-Free Version of Creamy Pesto Sauce

If you want to make a dairy-free pesto alternative, you have to replace the heavy cream and parmesan cheese. We will explain the plant-based alternative of these 2 vital ingredients of this creamy pesto sauce recipe.

1. Heavy Cream Substitute

Heavy cream is an essential ingredient to make the creamy pesto sauce. However, you have to avoid heavy cream to prepare a dairy-free version. The interesting thing is that there are various substitutes for heavy cream to make the vegan pesto variation.

• You can use coconut milk or almond milk to provide a creamy texture.
• Additionally, you can add cashew paste instead of heavy cream. 

2. Parmesan Cheese Substitute

You will be glad to know that, nowadays, vegan cheese is very popular. Using vegan cheese will allow the same texture and flavor as real cheese.

Moreover, you can use nutritional yeast instead of parmesan cheese because the nutritional yeast provides the flavor of cheese.

Conclusion

Creamy pesto sauce is a popular sauce nowadays. It assists in replacing the boring taste of traditional red or white sauces. Therefore, this sauce creates hype among the people who love cooking.

You require a recipe to learn how to make creamy pesto sauce at home, and we have come up with the best creamy pesto sauce recipe with uses of the sauce and tips to prepare dairy-free creamy pesto sauce.

We hope you have understood the 7 easy steps to prepare the sauce. Now, try to make the sauce by following the step-by-step process of the recipe. You can experiment with ingredients to enhance the flavor and make the recipe fun.

FAQs

How to Store and Preserve Creamy Pesto Sauce?

You can store the creamy pesto sauce in a glass jar or zip-lock bag to store the sauce. There are 2 ways to preserve the sauce.

• The first one is refrigeration for short-term preservation. Pour the sauce into a glass jar and seal the jar, or pour it into a zip lock bag and airtight the bag. Then, keep the jar or bag in the refrigeration. That’s how you can preserve the sauce for 5 to 7 days.
• The second one is freezing in the ice cube trays. You can freeze the creamy pesto sauce for long-term preservation. That’s how you can store the sauce for up to 3 months. 

What’s the Difference Between Regular Pesto and Creamy Pesto?

The creamy pesto sauce is quite different than the regular pesto sauce in terms of texture, flavor profile, consistency, uses, and nutritional content.

Aspect	Regular Pesto Sauce	Creamy Pesto Sauce
Texture	Coarse and slightly chunky	Creamy, velvety, and smooth
Flavor Profile	Fresh and nutty flavor	Fresh and nutty with a rich flavor
Consistency	Paste like consistency	Sauce-like consistency due to the addition of cream
Uses	Best for pasta, sandwiches, and wraps	Best for pizza, pasta, grilled meat, roasted vegetables
Nutritional Content	Very low in calories and fat	High calories of fat content due to the addition of heavy cream

How Long Does Creamy Pesto Sauce Last?

The shelf life of creamy pesto sauce depends on the type of preservation method.

• If you apply refrigeration, the creamy pesto sauce will last for up to a week.
• But, if you apply freezing, the sauce will last for 3 months or more.

Note: You need to check the color, smell, and texture of the sauce before using the stored sauce. If you observe off-odor, discoloration, or mold formation, you should discard the sauce immediately.

Essential Kitchen Tools for Creamy Pesto Sauce Recipe

1. Food Processor or Blender: To blend the ingredients to make the pesto sauce.
2. Measuring Cups & Spoons: To measure the ingredients precisely. 
3. Frying Pan: To roast the pine nuts.
4. Spatula or Wooden Spoon: To stir the pine nuts during roasting.
5. Garlic Press: To assist in mincing garlic. 
6. Grater: To grate the parmesan cheese.
7. Sharp Knife: To chop the basil or mince the garlic.

Whisk: To mix the seasoning with the sauce.