To hate pesto in a jar?

[Happydays21]

Just had some and it really is nothing like the fresh stuff. There is a horrible after taste. Yuck!

I love making my own pesto, but I like the jar pesto stuff. Pesto in a jar kept me and DH alive when we were poor students and couldn't afford much - we used to throw a tea spoon of pesto to boiled rice to make it vaguely edible, for example. It's not high cuisine, but what do you expect? Nothing wrong with it, though.

You can't make fresh pesto cheaper than you can buy it.

You can't make fresh pesto cheaper than you can buy horrible cheap pesto! Personally I would rather eat spaghettti with oil, garlic and chilli (which is cheap) than pesto from a jar.

Always make my own in batches and freeze it in portions.

Bought Rayo from the fridge section is delish! I can't quite get the proportions right with homemade.

Thanks Sqoosh, I never knew. I've still been eating it. 😞

Anyone know a good nut free one? Dd has nut allergy.

@allegretto

Which of these ingredients a re too nasty to pass you lips?

Tesco red pesto

Sunflower Oil, Partially Rehydrated Sundried Tomatoes (27%) (Water, Sundried Tomatoes, Salt), Tomato Purée, Basil (6%), Grana Padano Medium Fat Hard Cheese (Milk) (5%), Red Peppers (4%), Sugar, Pecorino Medium Fat Hard Cheese (Milk) (1%), Cashew Nuts (1%), Acidity Regulator (Lactic Acid), Pine Nuts (0.5%), Garlic Powder, Grana Padano Medium Fat Hard Cheese (Milk) contains: Preservative (Egg Lysozyme

YANBU, OP.
I love the fresh pesto from the fridge section.
I actually prefer it to the pesto my DH made from scratch.
The stuff in jars is nothing like it.

dingit
Pesto wouldn't be pesto without the pine nuts, surely?

I hate all pesto

Agree, jarred stuff is horrible.

I make my own, using breadcrumbs in liu of pine nuts quite often

Have just come back to this. Thanks for the veggie cheese tips. Just between us though - will never mention to dd that I have given her Parmesan and possibly non veggie Pesto ( am checking labels from now on).

It's bringing back awful memories of the time I sent her to Brownie camp with marshmellows to toast - completely unaware they contained gelatin. Her friend told her after she had eaten most of the packet. Luckily she was only young and not quite as horrified as she would be now.

Well, I guess we all like different things, so YANBU to not like pesto from a jar, no more than anyone else would BU to love it.

Though personally, I have to say, I loathed pesto, having only had it from a jar. Then I tasted my sister's proper home made pesto. Oh my God, it was ridiculous. So fecking delicious. And now I'm seriously craving it. Bugger.

I think the pine nuts are key to a tasty pesto. Jarred pesto generally only has a small proportion of pine nuts and they probably use the not as nice Chinese pine nuts.

YANBU. It is so, so grim, way to oily and agree on the aftertaste.

Yup, that's it Squoosh. My sister's pesto has fuckloads of pine nuts. And now I'm so tempted to invite myself round to her house for dinner and heavily hint re pasta and pesto .

*Which of these ingredients a re too nasty to pass you lips?

Tesco red pesto

Sunflower Oil, Partially Rehydrated Sundried Tomatoes (27%) (Water, Sundried Tomatoes, Salt), Tomato Purée, Basil (6%), Grana Padano Medium Fat Hard Cheese (Milk) (5%), Red Peppers (4%), Sugar, Pecorino Medium Fat Hard Cheese (Milk) (1%), Cashew Nuts (1%), Acidity Regulator (Lactic Acid), Pine Nuts (0.5%), Garlic Powder, Grana Padano Medium Fat Hard Cheese (Milk) contains: Preservative (Egg Lysozyme*

Sunflower oil! It tastes horrid. I would never use sunflower oil where you can taste it. Also there are hardly any pine nuts (understandable as expensive but 0.5% is really a miniscule amount and there's not much basil either.

My pesto recipe is basil (lots), a clove or two of garlic, chunk of parmesan, small bag of pine nuts, good quality olive oil. That's all. It's not a case of being "too nasty to pass my lips" I'd just rather not eat it. I just wrote my experience because I always thought I hated pesto until I started making it and now I realise that homemade really is completely different (although I don't make it often because it is so expensive).

Just to add - I don't fancy sugar or garlic powder in it much either!

I agree allegretto. And what the hell is Egg Lysozyme when it's at home. I recommend reading Joanna Blythman's book on the food industry: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/21/a-feast-of-engineering-whats-really-in-your-food

Yuck: proteopedia.org/wiki/index.php/Hen_Egg-White_(HEW)_Lysozyme