The best supermarket pesto: tried and tasted

Italian pesto is perfect with pasta, but which is the best supermarket variety? We put them to the test.

By Saga Magazine | Published - 23 Jul 2025

1. M&S Green Pesto

Winner

130g, £2.75

Good oil content, lovely texture and altogether a perfectly balanced pesto full of lemon, basil and garlic taste.

The toasted pine kernels were excellent and combined well with the pecorino cheese.

Looks and tastes how you would expect a traditional pesto to be.

Rating: 9/10

2. La Famiglia Rana Basil Pesto

140g, £2.25

Not particularly appetising to look at but tasted divine. Perhaps a little on the salty side for some but the basil, cheese and good quality olive oil blended wonderfully with all the tastes coming through.

This contained nearly twice as many pine nuts as the others, yet they were finely ground so were barely detectable until their flavour hit the palate. Delicious!

(Available from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Spa, Waitrose & Amazon)

Rating: 8/10

3. Waitrose Green Pesto with Basil

145g, £2.75

Although the colour and texture were excellent and the ingredients blended well to create a satisfying taste, something was lacking, which made it less flavoursome than expected.

The prevailing flavour coming through was the basil, but we could not really identify much else.

Rating: 8/10

4. Tesco Finest Basil Pesto

130g, £2.75

The strong citrus taste and abundance of garlic flavours masked the basil content, which made it an acquired taste.

However, the texture was good, though the pine nuts weren’t that evident. This was perfectly palatable but nothing special.

Rating: 7/10

5. Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Basil Pesto

150g, £3

Rather drier than most others, which meant it may be good for other recipes, but you would probably need to add a little more of your own olive oil if serving with pasta. The taste was good with subtle basil and lemon flavours and, overall, it was quite cheesy, though also pretty ordinary.

Rating: 6/10

6. Asda Extra Special Basil Pesto

130g, £2.75

A superb-looking pesto with large pine nuts and substantial oil for pesto pasta. Disappointingly it didn’t taste as good as it looked.

The Sicilian lemon was sharp and a little overpowering and despite their nice appearance, the pine nuts lacked flavour, and we could not taste the pecorino cheese.