Pesto: The Modern Mother Sauce; More Than 90 Inventive Recipes That Start with Homemade Pestos

Cooking instructor and Hope’s Garden founder Lennox proposes that pesto—accessible, fresh, and customizable—may be a more versatile complement to today’s styles of cooking and eating than traditional French “mother sauces,” such as hollandaise and béchamel. The author’s debut begins with the foundations for making and storing pesto: essential equipment and proportions, notes on ingredients and substitutes, and a handy cheat sheet of ingredient pairings to create pesto inspired by various global flavor profiles. Having laid the groundwork, Lennox presents a variety of recipes featuring pesto, including toasts, pizzas, pastas, sandwiches (and sandwich adjacent items such as crostini), and soups. Meals featured range from appetizers to main dishes and include both vegetarian and meat-based options. Each recipe provides not just serving notes but also estimate prep time. Color illustrations and tips throughout add interest and clarity. The volume concludes with a section for keeping notes on your own pesto recipes.