Pesto Eggs, TikTok's viral recipe (2024)

FAQs

Who is Susi pesto? ›

Call us crazy if you want, but a TikTok star who made pesto instead of buying it inspired countless confessionals that had nothing to do with cooking. Susi Vidal, a TikTok creator, makes pesto regularly for weeknight meals.

Traditional pesto is a blend of fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, extra-virgin olive oil, and Parmesan cheese. With a food processor, it comes together in just a few steps: Pulse the nuts, lemon juice, and garlic in the food processor until they're finely chopped. Add the basil and pulse again.

Pesto is most likely gluten-free. In a typical recipe, nothing jumps out as containing gluten, but there is always a concern for cross-contamination. Commonly served as a spread on sandwiches or a topping on pasta dishes, there may be contact with wheat products, making the pesto no longer gluten-free.

This means that a tablespoon (15g) of pesto contains around 56 calories, while our recommended serving size of 50g per person contains around 186 calories. Two of the most expensive ingredients in all pesto recipes are nuts and cheese, both of which are very high in calories.

The store-bought pesto video has created a prompt trend of beautiful chaos, as people began stitching it to share their wildest stories, ranging from the mild to the unruly. No topic is off-limits. One woman shared a story about a weird smell in her apartment that turned out to be her neighbor's rotting corpse.

What's the 'Susi-Stitch' trend? The trend started out with Vidal opening her TikTok video by explaining that she doesn't like store bought pesto. "Call me crazy if you want, I've never liked store-bought pesto," she begins her video, before jumping into her own recipe for homemade pesto.

Italian pine nuts are considered the finest in the world and are therefore eye-wateringly expensive. To make cost savings, many big producers source their pine nuts from China. Not a big issue, you might think, but these pine nuts are notorious for leaving a metallic aftertaste for some people, and that can last weeks.

That's largely down to the fact that most pesto sauces contain generous amounts of oil, nuts, and cheese. All three of these are high in fat and calories, so eating too much pesto, too regularly, and not getting enough exercise can ultimately be fattening.

Aside from nuts, oil, and cheese, other ingredients in pesto may also trigger IBS symptoms in some individuals. For example, garlic and basil, which are commonly used in pesto, are known to be high in FODMAPs, which are types of carbohydrates that can be difficult to digest for some people with IBS.

Although the majority of pesto sauces do not contain eggs, there are a few on the market that use egg lysozyme as a preservative. However, the preservative is almost always paired with cheese, so the product wouldn't be vegan anyway.

How unhealthy is pesto pasta? ›

Given all of the above, pesto can undoubtedly be considered a healthy food, and as long as you keep track of portions, it can also be part of a diet that supports a healthy weight. Pesto is nutrient-dense, and because of its fat content, it's also calorically dense.

Studies on Pesto and Digestive Health

However, studies on the individual ingredients of pesto, such as basil and garlic, suggest potential benefits for digestive health. For example, basil has been found to possess anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties that may help alleviate symptoms associated with IBS.

An average serving size of two eggs contains only 148 calories or 620 kilojoules – roughly the same as two apples.

Once opened, a jar of pesto lasts in the fridge for three days without any dramatic loss of quality. It will be perfectly safe for another two days, but leave it any longer, and its quality will decline to the point that it will no longer be enjoyable to eat.

“Call me crazy if you want, but I've never liked store-bought pesto.” You may have heard or seen these words at the start of many videos on your For You page. Perhaps surprisingly, they do not come from Ina Garten — someone who famously calls store-bought foods “fine” — but rather home-cooking influencer Susi Vidal.

DETROIT – If you spend any time on TikTok, there's a good chance you've run across Susi Vidal and her “Only Pans” page, where she cooks with flair for her more than 3 million followers.