This creamy basil pesto gnocchi recipe includes a recipe for homemade pesto alla Genovese sauce based on the official recipe and includes just seven ingredients – fresh Italian basil, extra virgin olive oil, Parmigiano and Pecorino cheese, salt, garlic, and pine nuts. We drop tender pillows of gnocchi into the creamy aromatic pasta sauce. You’ll never buy a jar of pesto again.
Before I swooned over my first bowl of fragrant trofie al pesto in a modest trattoria in Genoa, capital of the northern Italy province of Liguria, birthplace of basil pesto or pesto alla Genovese, I hadn’t really eaten an authentic basil pesto. Despite always ordering pesto in Italian restaurants in Australia and elsewhere, and making basil pesto with pasta for well over a decade in Sydney.
That’s because it’s near impossible to replicate the real deal unless you’re in Liguria, or the very least Italy, because the ingredients just taste different. But I’ve been on a quest to attempt to do just that, in my mother’s kitchen in rural Victoria. While pesto made in Australia will never taste like a true pesto alla Genovese, it’s absolutely worth making homemade pesto.
If you adore basil pesto as much as I do and you’ve eaten pesto alla Genovese in Italy, you’ll know that store-bought pesto – even Italian made pesto – just doesn’t taste like fresh Ligurian pesto. I’ve tried almost every supermarket brand pesto this year and homemade basil pesto is far more delicious. Make this basil pesto gnocchi recipe, easily one of our best pasta recipes, and, trust me, you might never buy a jar of pesto again.
Pesto lover? Do try our recipes for basil pesto pasta with potatoes and beans (the pesto dish I fell for on our first trip to Genoa, but made with fusilli instead of trofie), my pesto spaghetti and meatballs with peas and broccoli, a pesto potato salad, this pan-fried asparagus with pesto hummus, our pesto scrambled eggs, my cherry tomato burrata salad with asparagus, basil pesto and dukkah, this broccoli pasta with a creamy broccoli pesto sauce, and my Southeast Asian pesto.
And if you’re a gnocchi lover, try my creamy tomato pasta sauce with gnocchi made in just ten minutes, this asparagus, mushrooms, bacon and Parmesan gnocchi, my crispy pan fried gnocchi with bacon and broccoli, this pan fried pumpkin gnocchi with brown butter sage sauce, and my creamy leek and bacon gnocchi recipe.
Pesto Gnocchi Recipe with Homemade Pesto alla Genovese Sauce
This isn’t my first attempt at making an authentic pesto alla Genovese. Before my recent efforts, I’d tried to make a genuine Italian basil pesto at home in Siem Reap for years, too, but couldn’t get it right there – which is why I gave up and ended up developing a distinctively Southeast Asian pesto, which is still delicious and has a lot of great uses. But it’s not an Italian pesto, let alone a Genovese pesto.
Before I tell you about this homemade basil pesto gnocchi recipe based on the official pesto alla Genovese recipe, I have to confess that despite being addictively delicious (I honestly can’t stop making and eating this!) the colour in my images is not quite right – despite it looking the correct vibrant shade of light green when I made the version I was happiest with flavour-wise the evening before. Let me explain why, as it’s important to flavour as much as colour.
The Problem of Oxidisation
While my pesto gnocchi recipe will make you a super scrummy, creamy, cheesy, aromatic basil pesto pasta, the colour is not quite right for a couple of reasons. It’s partly because I didn’t photograph my pesto gnocchi until the day after making it and it’s challenging to delay or minimise let alone prevent oxidisation of basil pesto.
The longer basil pesto comes into contact with air and heat, which causes oxidisation, the darker green the pesto gradually gets. I’ve been watching my basil pesto sauces cycle through various shades of green as I’ve been testing basil pesto recipes in recent months. That’s why in Italy a proper pesto alla Genovese is made to eat in the home and made to order in good restaurants.
I’m sure there are artisanal producers of Genovese pesto in Liguria who have perfected the art of jarring a genuine fresh pesto and capturing the vibrant green colour and fresh herbaceous flavour. But after opening that jar you’ll want to use the pesto immediately if you want that vivid light green on your plate.
Although I have to say: a quick image search online still brings up plenty of jars of pesto alla Genovese by artisanal producers in Italy that range from a yellow-green like mine to very dark-green, so there’s that. The closest in colour to a just-made basil pesto is surprisingly a Barilla pesto Genovese – one I haven’t tried yet, as we don’t have a Woolworths near us, but I will test that one when I can.
So I should have photographed the dish immediately after finishing it, but these dishes also serve as dinner for mum and myself. The other reason the colour isn’t quite right is because I’m shooting recipes on an ancient iPhone that belongs in a history of technology museum and I don’t have reflectors, scrims and so on. The professional camera gear is home with Terence in Siem Reap. I should have brought a camera but I travelled with a 7-kilo carry-on expecting to stay a month.
I’ll share tips to delaying and minimising oxidisation in the tips section, below. Still, the basil pesto gnocchi pictured tastes incredibly scrumptious, even if the recipe shared here is not strictly authentic. Because I’ve broken two rules.
Firstly, there’s the (optional) addition of cream – not to the basil pesto, but to the pasta sauce. A proper pesto should be creamy enough itself thanks to the process of making it by hand in a mortar and pestle, and the two cheeses, which contribute richness as well as umami. Secondly, there’s the pasta.
Trofie or Gnocchi?
My basil pesto gnocchi is made with the ‘wrong’ type of pasta. I use heavenly pillowy potato gnocchi, which I think is wonderful for basil pesto, as the sauce cloaks and clings to the gnocchi beautifully.
In Liguria an authentic pesto Genovese is made with trofie – and so it should be, as trofie is absolutely perfect for basil pesto. The Ligurian pasta is hand-rolled into a short, thin, twisted pasta shape, with pointy ends, which the pesto clings to beautifully.
Surprisingly, we can get dried trofie in Siem Reap, but I haven’t been able to find it here. Not that it’s hard to make fresh trofie – nor fresh gnocchi for that matter – and I will share recipes for those at some stage.
Terence and I much prefer making our own gnocchi at home in Cambodia. But there’s only so much I can do here in Australia without my husband here to take photographs.
The Crime of Cream
Cream in pesto sauce is not authentic. Don’t tell your Italian friends if you use it. But my mum adores creamy pastas and loves gnocchi and my cooking here in Australia is mum-centric. My poor mother is not well and she’s spent the pandemic alone, alienated by her estranged brother and his wife and threatened with eviction, so I’m here to nurture and spoil mum with comforting food and love.
And let’s face it, this creamy basil pesto gnocchi recipe makes an incredibly delicious pasta dish that’s supremely comforting, and it’s only crazy food writers like me who embark on obsessive quests to recreate authentic recipes. So add cream for extra richness or don’t add cream if you’re a purist, and use whatever pasta you like.
Tips to Making this Pesto Gnocchi Recipe with Homemade Pesto alla Genovese Sauce
I’ve got some important tips to making this pesto gnocchi recipe, especially if you want to achieve that vivid green colour of authentic fresh Genovese pesto. While my basil pesto gnocchi recipe is based on the official pesto alla Genovese, I’ve made some tweaks and you can do the same to adjust it to your taste.
The Official Pesto alla Genovese Recipe
The official Pesto alla Genovese recipe includes just seven ingredients – fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil, Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino cheeses, salt, garlic, and pine nuts. But to be authentic it must include basilico Genovese PDO – which stands for Protected Designation of Origin, which means the basil has unique characteristics that depend on the geographical place where it’s grown.
And this is why a basil pesto pasta that’s not made with Italian basil grown in Liguria is never going to taste exactly the same as that sublime bowl of perfumed trofie al pesto I savoured in that simple trattoria in the backstreets of Genoa all those years ago.
Another reason is that the basil leaves must be young, so if you don’t grow the basil yourself, you might not be able to source young leaves, as I couldn’t. Younger basil leaves are a lighter green, which explains the bright colour of a proper Genovese pesto. My basil leaves were older and darker, hence the darker green of the flecks of basil in my pesto gnocchi sauce.
But if you use Italian basil and can source other ingredients as close as possible to those in the official recipe – such as Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano, Sardinian pecorino cheese, Extra Virgin Olive Oil PDO from Liguria (or Northern Italy), pine kernels from the Mediterranean – you’ll make something more closely resembling the official Pesto alla Genovese recipe than not.
Official Pesto alla Genovese Recipe
2 bunches of basilico Genovese PDO (60-70 g of leaves)
45-60 g of Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano
20-40 g of Sardinian pecorino cheese
60-80 cc of Extra Virgin Olive Oil PDO from Liguria
10 g of sea salt
30 g of pine kernels (from Pisa or the Mediterranean)
One or two cloves of garlic (Vessalico garlic is best for its delicate flavour)
When it comes to prepping the basil, the official recipe calls for the young basil leaves to be washed and gently dried. Only leaves are used, not stalks.
The recipe also calls for the pesto to be made in a marble mortar and pestle – some traditional recipes call for a wooden mortar and pestle – and using a mortar and pestle is essential if you want to maintain the vibrant colour and fresh flavour. A food processor or blender hastens the oxidisation of the basil.
My Basil Pesto Gnocchi Recipe
I was able to buy Italian extra virgin olive oil (although I usually buy Australian, which is excellent) and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, but I could only find Pecorino Romano not Pecorino Sardo (from Sardinia). The basil and garlic we get are both grown in Australia, and the sea salt is Australian.
Labelled as “packaged in Australia”, I suspect the pine nuts are Chinese – which means they could also be Siberian/Russian or Korean – as they are smaller, fatter, duller in colour, and have brown tips, whereas the longer Mediterranean pine nuts and Italian pinoli are typically longer, creamier and more polished looking with no tips.
After loads of recipe testing, these are the measures I settled on:
My Basil Pesto Recipe
3 cups fresh Italian basil leaves (around 75g)
¾ cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated (60g)
½ cup Pecorino Sardo cheese, grated (40g)
½ cup extra virgin olive oil, preferably Italian (80 mls)
½ tsp sea salt
2 tbsp pine nuts (30g)
2 cloves garlic
Do buy good quality sea salt and extra virgin olive oil (preferably Italian) and try to source proper Parmigiano Reggiano and/or Pecorino Romano even if you buy small wedges and use it more sparingly than we suggest. Avoid the grated ‘parmesan cheese’ that looks like saw dust, as there’s a reason for that. Tests have found some brands contained cellulose, made from wood pulp.
Mortar and Pestle or Food Processor/Blender?
For a vibrant green colour, you must minimise oxidisation. My best tips for helping prevent or delay oxidisation are to wash the basil leaves in really cold water then put them in a big bowl of icy water for a few minutes, and to gently pat the leaves with paper kitchen towels or a cotton tea towel to dry them. The leaves must be dry before making the paste.
Using a mortar and pestle is far better than using a food processor or blender if you want a brighter colour and more flavourful basil pesto, in the same way that a mortar and pestle is the best option for pounding Southeast Asian herb and spice pastes and curry pastes.
You should also pound the leaves in a circular motion so that you’re using the pestle to crush the leaves on the side of the mortar rather than pound them directly into the garlic paste. The official pesto recipe calls for turning the mortar. If you’re going to try that, put a folded kitchen towel underneath.
If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, I highly recommend buying one. We have a few mortar and pestles at home in Siem Reap. It’s our favourite Asian cooking utensil. But we love our handcrafted KROK mortar and pestle. My mum actually has an Italian marble mortar and pestle, which is what I’ve been using.
If you prefer using a food processor or blender, try putting the blades in the freezer an hour before preparing the pesto so they’re icy cold when you use them, to minimise oxidisation. Smash the garlic first with the pestle and coarsely chop it. Then pulse the ingredients at intervals so the blades don’t heat the basil, and only pulse until you have a creamy green paste, don’t over-blend the paste.
A Note on Measures
This pesto gnocchi recipe makes a very cheesy pesto, as the original recipe does. I’ve maintained that balance of cheeses to basil as my mum adores cheese (and so do I!). But if you’re using the optional cream suggested in my pesto gnocchi recipe, below, you might want to use less pesto. Cream is not an authentic pesto inclusion, of course, but it’s heavenly.
I always recommend following a recipe the first time you make it, but you should still taste as you go and adjust the measures of ingredients to suit your palate. For instance, the authentic pesto Genovese recipe calls “a few grains” of sea salt. I assume the suggestion is a pinch. I use half a teaspoon of sea salt but I have to confess to adding more salt to my serving. You might prefer less salt.
Serving Sizes
If you use a 500g pack of gnocchi, and serve 125g of gnocchi per person, you’ll get four servings. I often make a garden salad to eat on the side and we always have enough leftover for a second meal.
Italians tend to serve slightly smaller servings. In Italy, pasta is eaten as a primi or first course, which is more like a starter size. Italian recipes recommend 60-100g of dried pasta or 70-120g of fresh pasta per person.
If you’ve spent a weekend hiking, skiing or snowboarding and you’ve really worked up an appetite, then you’ll probably be able to eat more than that and could serve up 2-3 generous serves.
Storing Basil Pesto
Pesto will keep for a few days, so if you’re not using this basil pesto immediately, transfer it to a jar, pour a little extra virgin olive oil on top, seal with a lid, and refrigerate until you’re ready to use it. Enjoy!
Pesto Gnocchi Recipe with Homemade Pesto alla Genovese Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cloves garlic - peeled
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil - preferably Italian
- 3 cups fresh Italian basil leaves - washed and dried (see notes)
- ¾ cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese - grated
- ½ cup Pecorino Sardo cheese - grated
- 500 g potato gnocchi
- 150 ml thickened cooking cream - optional
- To finish: more grated cheese - fresh basil leaves, toasted pine nuts
Instructions
- Put a pot of salted water on the stove over high heat to boil.
- Make the basil pesto using a mortar and pestle, working quickly to prevent oxidisation: add the garlic cloves and salt to the mortar and use the pestle to pound into a pulp; add the pine nuts, continuing to pound to create a coarse grainy paste.
- Gradually add the basil leaves to the mortar, crushing the leaves in a circular motion to incorporate into the garlic paste; add the cheeses, using the pestle to stir them into the paste, then slowly pour in the olive oil, simultaneously stirring until you have a creamy vibrant green paste.
- Add the potato gnocchi to the pot of salt boiling water, give it a stir to separate, and cook according to the packet instructions until tender and pillowy.
- When the gnocchi is ready, spoon the pesto into a large bowl, add a few tablespoons of pasta water to loosen the pesto and create a creamy sauce. Use a slotted spoon to scoop out the gnocchi and transfer it to the pesto, stirring to coat the gnocchi in sauce. Add a little more pasta water if needed, along with a little more grated cheese, and stir so the gnocchi is well coated in the sauce.
- If using the cream, skip the step above and instead heat the cream in a large pan over high heat to reduce it then turn the heat to low. When the gnocchi is ready, spoon the pesto into the cream in the pan and stir to combine. Use a slotted spoon to scoop out the gnocchi and transfer it to the pesto sauce, add a little more grated cheese, and stir so the gnocchi is well coated in the sauce.
- Divide the pesto gnocchi between plates, drizzle on a little more extra virgin olive oil if needed, garnish with fresh basil leaves and toasted pine nuts, sprinkle on more grated cheese, and serve immediately with cracked black pepper.
Notes
Nutrition
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make this pesto gnocchi as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.
