Looking for a Specific Pesto Recipe

December 29, 2023 4:55 PM

I’m looking for a specific pesto recipe that was published prior to 2013. Unfortunately I don’t remember much about the recipe or the context but the recipe made the best pesto I’ve ever eaten.

What I remember about the recipe was that it used a mix of three cheeses.

I think it was from the NY Times website as part of an interview with a chef (a man). Possibly there were three recipes and chefs or a trial of three recipes?

posted by poxandplague to Food & Drink (4 answers total)

Mark Bittman is the first person who comes to mind when you say “NYTimes male chef.” Google comes up with a link to a NY Times article for Mark Bittman’s Pesto 3 Ways someone pinned on Pinterest. The article is 2019, but it’s possible that it was a reprise of an older version. The link itself no longer works, but maybe one of Bittman’s currently published pesto recipes will ring a bell?
posted by Kriesa at 7:48 PM on December 29, 2023

Here's the Bittman Pesto 3 Ways...but none of them involve 3 kinds of cheese.

I wonder if it's a recipe that actually has 2 cheeses, but they're parmesan + pecorino romano, which might accidentally be interpreted as 2 separate cheeses?
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:03 PM on December 29, 2023

In 2001, chef Tom Colicchio did an article on his way to make pesto, but it only has one cheese in it. (Parmigiano-Reggiano.)

My search didn't turn up any other likely candidates, besides what has been already suggested.
posted by Jeanne at 9:50 PM on December 29, 2023

Is it possible that it's this 2010 pesto from Felicity Cloake? Only two cheeses, but she decides explicitly to use both after trying different approaches and talking to "Michelin-starred chef" Giorgio Locatelli.
posted by redfoxtail at 7:02 AM on December 30, 2023