Can You Eat Raw Pesto Straight From The Jar?

Short answer
Yes, pesto can be used straight from the jar and doesn't require cooking or heating. We actively discourage applying too much heat to pesto, as this will destroy many of the fresh flavours that producers work so hard to retain.

Long answer
Almost all the jarred pestos you find in the supermarket will have been pasteurised to ensure they can last a long time unopened and are perfectly safe to eat straight from the jar.

There is no need to heat pesto, although too many people do. Perhaps it's understandable that people opt to take a 'belt and braces' approach, especially if they plan to serve it to someone they may consider vulnerable, like babies, toddlers, or pregnant women. However, we strongly urge you not to because producers go to great lengths to keep their sauces raw, and heating (or worse still, cooking) destroys all those wonderful fresh flavours.

Once you have cooked and drained your pasta (hopefully, you've saved some of the starchy pasta water, right?), the heat from the noodles will be hot enough to warm the pesto without ruining the fresh flavours.

If you like pesto neat, go for it. Its richness means you'll probably get sick of it long before you reach the bottom of the jar. Even pesto obsessives like us can't demolish a whole jar in one sitting.