Today, we are making a quick homemade pesto with fresh herbs from the garden. The classic basil pesto and a variant with parsley and pumpkin seeds.

Because of the World Cup and to treat the kids we serve it on football noodles ;-). However, it also tastes great on tomatoes and feta, as an easy digestible summer food.

The pesto can be stored in a glass jar covered with oil for several days in the refrigerator. For larger quantities of herbs in the garden, you can also prepare in advance and freeze the glasses. Hereby it is better to leaf out the parmesan and add later after thawing.

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Pine nuts and in pumpkin seeds are rich in spermidine. Likewise, garlic and parmesan – a long-matured hard cheese – are rich in spermidine.

Science News: A recently published epidemiological study by Austrian and international researchers showed that the amount of dietary spermidine correlates with lifespan. 829 men and women were examined over a period of 20 years. Subjects were classified into three groups depending on the spermidine content in their diet (low, medium and high spermidine diet). On average, the spermidine-rich group had a significantly longer lifespan than those with a spermidine poor diet (Kiechl et al, Am J klein Nutr., June 2018).

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Preparation

For the pesto you need a hacker or blender. First, the seeds (pines or pumpkin seeds) are chopped. Then chop garlic into small pieces and add to the blender. Raw garlic tastes very intense and you can adjust the amount according to your preference. We took rather less because of the children. Further, add the fresh herbs to the blender. If everything is finely chopped/mixed, add the oil and mix again. The pesto should now be creamy, not too dry and gooey, otherwise just add more oil. Now season with salt and in case of the parsley pesto add the lemon juice and zest. Finally rub the parmesan and stir in with a spoon.

For the variant with the tomatoes (like most vegetables also a spermidine source) and feta cheese, just cut everything and put it nicely on a plate. Mix 2 tbs pesto with 1 tbs white balsamic vinegar and pour over all. A piece of bread and a glass of white wine, wonderful!

We wish all football fans exciting World Cup goals!

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Ingredients:

Basil pesto

2 handful of fresh basil leaves

100 g pine nuts

1 small clove of garlic

about 200 ml of olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

80 g of parmesan

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Parsley pumpkin seed pesto

2 handfuls of fresh parsley leaves

100g pumpkin seeds

1 small clove of garlic

about 100 ml of pumpkin seed oil

1 tbs of lemon juice, a little grated lemon zest

½ tsp salt

80 g parmesan

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