Here's How Long That Open Jar Of Pesto Will Last

There is serious flavor in the sauce from Genoa, Italy called pesto. Sweet basil, garlic, creamy pine nuts, salty parmesan, and grassy olive oil combine to make a condiment that tastes great on almost everything it touches. A little of it goes a long way, so for one dish you might only use a small portion of a newly opened jar. And, like all the best jarred sauces, pesto needs to be refrigerated once it's opened. But just how quickly should you finish the jar before it goes bad? It turns out, pretty quickly.

Once opened, you have about three days to enjoy jarred pesto sauce at its best flavor, as long as your fridge is set to a safe temperature (40 degrees Fahrenheit or below), and the jar of pesto hasn't reached or passed its expiration date. It's fine to eat a couple of days after that, but you may notice that it's not as great as it was when you first opened and used the sauce. As with most jarred products that have been pressurized and sealed, oxygen is the enemy, so as soon as you open a jar of pesto sauce, it begins to decline. After a few days, it may start to turn brown which can also affect its flavor. To battle this, top the remaining contents with a shallow layer of olive oil to keep air at bay. You should still use the pesto within a handful of days, but this should help it maintain its color.

Three to five days certainly isn't a very long time, so if you don't want to end up throwing good pesto away, you've got a couple of choices: freeze it or make your menu that week generous in its pesto usage. When you store leftover pesto in ice cube trays or covered containers and freeze them, the sauce will last for about six months.

If you prefer to use it up before needing to freeze it, pesto will shine in more dishes than you may realize. Of course, it's excellent tossed in hot pasta and spooned over grilled or roasted meat, pork, chicken, and fish. You can also brush pesto on pizza crust as a substitute for tomato sauce, stir it into mashed potatoes or chicken salad, or toss your roasted potatoes with a couple spoonfuls. Pesto is great on your fried or microwave-poached eggs in the morning. You can also make spreads with it by mixing it into mayonnaise or stirring it into softened butter to make a compound butter that you can mold and freeze. Pesto makes a delicious topper for classic garlic bread as soon as it comes out of the oven, or poured over a ball of burrata cheese, then served with toasted bread for scooping it all up.