Cooking With Pesto

In 2009 many of us felt like we had no spare time on our hands, and if we did it usually went on catching up with friends, spending time with family or doing something that you really love doing. This meant that, for a lot of people, the type of food that they would cook for themselves or their families really suffered. Busy people embraced a quick, throw together style of cooking (if in fact they were cooking at all) that didn’t exactly produce food that was high in flavour or particularly healthy. That is to say, most of us weren’t spending Friday nights whipping up homemade Italian sauces.

But throwing together dishes when you are in a rush does not mean that the flavour or nutritional value of your dish should have to be effected. There are still ways that you can throw something together quickly that tastes good, which is something to aim for in 2010.

Using pesto or a pesto stir-through sauce is one way to achieve this as pesto is packed with flavour and nutritional value and lets you whip up a dish so that you have more of your spare time to spend on doing what you want to do. Pesto is a staple of authentic Italian food and many Italian sauces and using it is a fantastic way to make quick, simple after-work meals delicious.

Made predominantly with basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and a little grana padano cheese, the flavour of pesto is a very natural, healthy flavour that is a great addition to any dish. Many Italian food recipes that you will find will use pesto, whether it is a simple pasta dish or meat or vegetable one. It is a great addition to chicken and fish dishes too and livens up simple soups and casseroles.

But not only is pesto a healthy option when you are trying to avoid creamy or buttery sauces, but it is also such a quick and simple ingredient to use in a huge variety of dishes and Italian sauces. This is because all you have to do is add a little to your dish or sauce and let it combine with your other ingredients to create mouth-watering flavours.

Or for those of you who have never used pesto before or do not really have time to make your own sauces, then using a pesto stir-through sauce is perfect for you. Sacla is an Italian, family run company that makes a wide variety of different pestos for people around the world and has been doing so for twenty years. They use the freshest ingredients and all of their pestos are made in Italy and shipped over to the UK.

To make using pesto really simple for those people who have never tried it before, Sacla have come up with a rage of different stir-through sauces. Try oven roasted tomato and rocket stir-through sauce for anything from pasta to potatoes and make authentic Italian food that is good for the waistline. Or there is char-grilled aubergine and Parmesan for something smoky and indulgent and vine ripened tomato and chilli for a stir-through sauce that really heats up your dish.

Whichever stir-through sauce you choose, Italian food recipes come to life with pesto and can be cooked quickly. Authentic Italian food is not only for the Italians, so choose the pesto that you like and get cooking!