The Pasta was Barilla Gemelli or Girandole. The pesto was mixed with starchy pasta-water to try and create a creamy emulsion that would coat the pasta better.
### Ratings
Each pesto is compared in these categories:
- taste: how it tasted
- consistency: How was the consistency, did it form a proper emulsion with the pasta water
- ingredients: what's in it, how much of it, and how is it
*notes:* This pesto lacked the spicieness I expect from a calabrese pesto. It was not spicy at all, in fact it had a very mild taste. In the context of pesto you could even say it did not taste like much at all. It also did not form the best emulsion and had a grainy texture, presumably from the shredded almonds. Adding Sriracha to it significantly improved the flavour. Make of that what you wish. This is not really surprising, as this pesto consists of around 30% sunflower oil, with a main ingredient that doesn't really carry much taste (peppers). It's also missing one of the most important ingredients for a Calabrese, the ricotta! This is definitely a pretty bad pesto.
*notes:* This is the classic, creamy, supermarket "Pesto a la Genovese" but vegan (and even more creamy). The taste is a 5/5, it has every element you'd expect from a "Pesto a la Genovese", even though it definitely isn't, as it's missing pine nuts and Parmesan cheese. The taste is one thing, but I definitely can't understate how well it reacted to the pasta water (probably due to the modified starches). It was superbly creamy throughout and coated even the more challenging Gemelli beautifully. Sure, it could have better ingredients (more olive oil, better nuts) but you can't argue with the result. Therefore it deserves the full 5 star rating.
*notes:* This pesto tasted pretty good, although I missed the creaminess of the cheese (as there is almost no cheese at all in this pesto, and nothing to replace it). There was a considerable ammount of visible fibers, almost looking like straw-fibres. Even though it contains a lot of oil, it still coated the paste well and did not separate when I added the pasta water. This pesto definitely has a more "traditional" or "organic" look to it, but it can't quite pull it off. I rate it four out of five stars.
*notes:* This is a good pesto. It might be a little bit more salty than the vegan option, so keep that in mind when salting your noodles, but I'd argue it's comparably to the vegan pesto in all other regards. In my opinion, the vegan version tastes a little bit better, but that's only marginally. It's a little bit more creamy than you'd expect from a "real" pesto alla genovese, (not as much as the vegan version, but to be honest, that's not a realistic benchmark). My only real issue with this pesto is how oily it is, but luckily this doesn't really impact flavour or consistency. Of course it's missing the pine nuts, but to be hones, I didn't really notice.
*notes:* This seems like a good pesto on paper. Basil, real pine nuts, Parmiggiano Reggiano, olive oil. But that's only on paper. I guess that they can do this due to just low quality ingredients. It's straw-y, salty, a little to oily and has a lot of whole pine nuts in it (I know that they are in there, stop showing me them! I want them incorporated into the pesto!). Sadly, this pesto ain't it chief. Especially considering the price.
*notes:* This is a saucy, creamy, tangy, fruity, and sweet pesto masterpiece. You can even put it on bread just fine. It's that good! And for an unbeatable price too! The easiest five-star rating so far!
*notes:* This pesto tastes very similar to the Gut & Günstig Pesto Rosso, but maybe a little more cheesy. I guess I like this one a tiny bit better, but sadly it costs almost three times as much, and that really isn't justifiable. Therefore this only gets four stars from me.
*notes:* This is an okay pesto. It's less nutty and cheesy than expected, but then again, it doesn't claim to be anything but "Verde". It's a little bit too oily for my taste, but that's not really a problem. It's a pretty good deal for the price, there's a lot of basil (and not of bad quality!) this alone brings a lot of flavour to the whole thing. Real pine nuts and real cheese (although not that much) make this a pretty good deal for the price!
*notes:* This pesto is very simple, but not in a bad way, it's actually quite tasty! You can definitely taste that there's a lot of dried tomatoes in it. I'm not a huge fan of the acidity though, which definitely detracts from the whole experience. The pesto is quite oily, but nothing to be afraid of. It still forms a nice emulsion if you want it to. I think this pesto is somewhere between good and okay, and I'll rate it on the higher end of that because of the price.
*notes:* This isn't a bad pesto, it's just not good enough for the price. The Ja! Pesto Rosso tasted more like a "sun-dried tomato" pesto than this one (that's what pomodori secchi translates to). If they didn't call it sun-dried tomato pesto, I wouldn't be as harsh with the rating, but sadly that's where we're at. Overall, it has quite a mild taste of tomatoes (but not *dried tomatoes*), herbs, and something I can't quite identify. It's quite pleasant, but due to the mild taste you end up using a lot more of it than the much cheaper Gut & Günstig or Ja! Pesto Rossos. This exasperates the pricing issue further. The mild taste is not a surprise if you look at the ingredients, as it's almost 50% oil (if you extrapolate from the ingredients for which you have percentages) and only 7.5% half-dried tomatoes. I'm dissapointed in this one.
*notes:* This is a pretty tasty pesto, although I wouldn't say I tasted much of the walnut, which is a little bit disapointing. For a "Ricotta and Walnut" pesto, this is definitely less nutty than expected, but it's still a nice pesto! I'll give it four out of five stars for now. When I find another nutty pesto to compare it against, I might need adjust the score.
*notes:* This is a pretty basic pesto alla genovese. Sadly it lacks both the cheesiness and nuttiness you'd expect. I'm also not completely sold on the creaminess, although I can't exactly point out why. I think it's because you can see how straw-y the basil was that they used. But that said, it doesn't taste offensively bad, and for the price it's okay. Therefore I'd rate it three out of five stars.
*notes:* This is a strong pesto. Holy cow. You will easily get 6-8 servings out of it, depending on how much garlic you like. It has a pronounced wild garlic flavour, with a little bit of nuttiness, and thats it. Very basic, but very good. The only negative I can think of is that you just cannot eat it in any office setting other than homeoffice. It's also quite oily, but thats perfectly fine in this case since even the oil is supremely flavourful. This is a great pesto, and I think that the price is perfectly reasonable considering everything mentioned above.
*notes:* This is overall a tasty pesto, it's rich in flavour, with a not so sour taste of tomatoes, cheese and nuts, and a creamy taste (although not a creamy texture), presumably from the mascarpone. The texture is a little bit grainy, and for that I docked it a point in the consistency department, but still very pleasant to eat. They advertise it as being produced in collaboration with a three michelin star chef. If that's the best he can do, than I don't think he'll keep those. Viewed as a price/value proposition it definitely isn't bad though. A little bit cheaper than the Barilla pestos, but about as good as the best ones they have. It's different enough in taste from the cheap pesto rossos (at 1.19€) that I don't think it makes sense to treat them as being in the same category, therefore this is still a pretty good (but not great) value proposition.
*notes:* This is the first pesto arrabiata I've ever had, so I can't really compare it to anything. Once I try some more I might update this review. It's spicy, as a pesto arrabiata should be, but I am not completely sold on the taste. It feels like there are some ingredients missing, maybe bell pepper, or onions, something to round out the flavour. Other than that it's pretty good! You will get 4-5 servings from this small glass, making it a pretty good value for the price.
*notes:* This is a weird one. It doesn't have a very strong taste, so the glass is good for two, maybe three portions. I would say it tastes more like a zucchini sauce with extra basil than a pesto... But then it is a little bit more sour than you'd want for a sauce... I am overall confused by the taste. If I expected a pesto, I'd probably be disapointed by this. There are pretty large chunks of zucchini in there, pretty uncommon for a pesto, and the taste is just very mild. This is just not for me I guess. Two stars.
*ingredients:* red peppers (25%), yellow peppers (25%), sunflower oil, ricotta (10%), cashews, Grana Padano Cheese (5.1%), sugar, salt, double tomato concentrate, lactic acid, onions, chilli (0.2%), herbs.
| Category | Rating / Value |
|-------------|----------------|
| taste | 5/5 |
| consistency | 5/5 |
| ingredients | 4/5 |
| price | 2.49€ |
| size | 190g |
| servings | 3 |
*notes:* Another great pesto alla calabrese. It's not quite as creamy rich as the bertolli one, but other than that they are pretty close together. I'll dock one star because it's just not quite as good. A little bit sweeter, a little bit less creamy. You can see exactly why when looking at the ingredients. Bertolli puts 2.6 times the ammount of ricotta in theirs, for basically the same price per serving. I did however not dock a taste point for this pesto, as you probably won't notice anything if you didn't compare the two pestos directly. The final rating is still lower than the bertolli, just because I think that the bertolli one is a better pesto. That's it.
*notes:* This is what traditional pesto is all about. A few high quality ingredients come together to form something great. This pesto has a pretty strong, rich taste of dried tomatoes, with a noticeable garlic falvour and vinegar notes to round it out. It's so strong that you really shouldn't use much more than a table spoon per serving. It's a pretty good pesto, I think I like it a bit more than the Ja! pesto rosso, which is quite similar in taste, but also quite a bit cheaper (roughly 26% per serving). I don't think I can give a full five star rating, becuase of the (for me a little bit to) pungent taste though.
*notes:* I think Barilla is making a mistake by labeling these "Pesto Rustico" products as pesto. They clearly are not. Even the product picture shows it being served on bread. Similar to the Basilico e Zucchini "Pesto Rustico", this has a very mild taste, and behaves more like a chunky vegetable sauce then a pesto. They also both have in common, that they don't taste very good. I think this one is even more mild though, I ended up adding sriracha to it to at least have *something* interesting... I don't like it. The only good thing I have to say about this is that the ingredients are pretty straight forwad, but even they have dreid vegetables among them, probably further detracting from the overall taste profile.
