Create allergy card
← Browse ingredients

Pesto

Italian sauce of basil, garlic, pine nuts, cheese and olive oil.

Pesto — illustrative ingredient image

About Pesto

Pesto is an Italian sauce traditionally made from basil, garlic, pine nuts, cheese, and olive oil. It is used to dress pasta, spread on bread, flavour vegetables, and accompany other savory dishes. The name can also describe preparations with variations in ingredients or proportions.

It has a fresh, herbaceous basil flavour with pungent garlic, savoury cheese, and the rounded richness of olive oil. Pine nuts contribute a mild nuttiness. Texture is generally thick and spoonable, with a smooth, coarse, or lightly granular consistency depending on how the ingredients are processed.

Pesto is usually green, though colour varies with basil, oil, cheese, and processing. It is sold fresh, chilled, frozen, or in jars and other packaged forms. Grinding or blending produces a paste or sauce; stirring, dilution, or incorporation into a dish changes its thickness and distribution.

Ingredient type
sauce

FOLLOW IT TO THE PLATE

Where will you meet it?

Explore the dishes that use this ingredient and their country and cuisine connections.

Explore linked dishes

ON A MENU OR LABEL

Find local names and written forms to help recognise this ingredient.

See local names

Where pesto appears

0 linked foods

Find foods to recognise by country and type. Recipes and products vary; these are recorded ingredient connections.

Food connections are still being added.

No linked foods are available for this ingredient yet.

Name examples awaiting language review. Confirm the specific food or product.

Local names for pesto

Names and romanised forms to recognise on menus and labels.

English

Pesto

pesto

Available names only. Languages may be spoken in other countries; a name alone does not identify every ingredient in a dish.

Pesto nutrition & diet

Pesto nutritional value

Reference: Pesto, green

Per 100 g of the edible portion of the stated reference food.

Calories
420kcal
Protein
5.6g
Carbs
3.9g
Fat
42.5g

Reference example for the named food and preparation, per 100 g edible portion. This is not a universal value for every recipe or brand; packaged products should be compared with their own label. CoFID 2021 food code 17-622. Carbohydrate follows the dataset’s available-carbohydrate convention. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/.

Portions & preparation

Use the exact pesto recipe and serving amount, since basil, oil, cheese, nuts, garlic, and their proportions vary by brand or preparation. Match refrigerated, jarred, frozen, or freshly made pesto, and distinguish the sauce itself from pasta, bread, or other foods served with it.

Compare the right form: Match the specific fresh, jarred, frozen, or shelf-stable pesto recipe, including its cheese, nut, oil, and additive profile.

Diet considerations

Traditional pesto is plant-and-animal-derived because it commonly combines basil, pine nuts, garlic, and oil with cheese. Compatibility changes with dairy-free substitutions, other nuts, animal ingredients, cereal-based accompaniments, and processing aids. The recipe must be checked rather than assuming every pesto has the same composition.

AI-authored reading notes · Awaiting editorial review. Measured values, where available, have a separate source above.

Dietary compatibility

  • Vegan
    Not established
  • Vegetarian
    Not established
  • Pescatarian
    Not established
  • Keto
    Not established
  • Paleo
    Not established
  • Low-carb
    Not established
  • Halal
    Not established
  • Kosher
    Not established
What these diet assessments mean
Vegan · Not established
The available profile does not establish the full composition or processing for this dietary pattern.
Vegetarian · Not established
The available profile does not establish the full composition or processing for this dietary pattern.
Pescatarian · Not established
The available profile does not establish the full composition or processing for this dietary pattern.
Keto · Not established
A defined serving and sourced carbohydrate data are needed before assessing this dietary pattern.
Paleo · Not established
The ingredient form and processing have not been assessed against this dietary pattern.
Low-carb · Not established
A defined serving and sourced carbohydrate data are needed before assessing this dietary pattern.
Halal · Not established
Sourcing, processing and any applicable certification have not been verified. A food name alone does not establish halal status.
Kosher · Not established
Sourcing, processing and any applicable certification have not been verified. A food name alone does not establish kosher status.

For the plain ingredient · Awaiting review. Diet compatibility is not allergy suitability or halal/kosher certification. Keto and low-carb depend on the portion.

Reviewed ingredient entryIngredient reference · Preparations vary

AI-generated illustration for visual context. It does not identify a particular product or establish allergen content.

Sources & review

Nutrition reference: UK Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (CoFID), 2021 — Pesto, green ↗. Values are scaled from 100 g of the recorded edible form. Individual portions have no assumed fixed weight.

Expanded overview, name examples and nutrition notes are database drafts awaiting editorial review. Numeric nutrition values, where shown, have their own source and food-form reference.

The ingredient description and dish connections come from the draft catalogue and may change after review.

Last recorded verification: .