The best store bought pesto is herby, garlicky, and nutty. It should be oily, but not too oily. The best jarred pesto doesn’t need to have cheese—but if it does have cheese, there should be a lot of cheese. Most importantly, the best jarred pesto shouldn’t have a weird, funky twang.
During two separate taste tests, we discovered that finding a premade pesto with all of these features is pretty difficult. Most store bought pesto has a weird sourness. Why?! What is in it that’s making it sour?! Luckily, we managed to find a few that are worth purchasing. These are the best store bought pesto options out there.
- Cento Basil Pesto Sauce
This is a classic pesto made with olive oil, Grana Padano, parmesan, pine puts, cashews, basil, and garlic. It has such a traditional taste to it, and I love the addition of the mild-but-still-nutty Grana Padano. The flavor here is tart, but still quite luscious and delicious. Cento typically makes their products by the book, and they excel because of it, making it one of the best jarred pesto options on grocery store shelves. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Mezzetta Basil Pesto
Mezzetta basil pesto is bright green and features chunks of garlic, parmesan cheese, and lots of olive oil. It also has rosemary extract in its ingredients, and you can really taste it on the finish. To me, this rustic pesto begs to be spread on some toasted baguette points or eaten with a sandwich. It has a bold, sharp flavor with some enhanced herbiness due to the rosemary. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Barilla Creamy Genovese Pesto
This may not be super high quality, but gosh darn is it delicious. It’s like creamy pesto butter; you could simply just spread this rich, creamy, and herbaceous pesto onto some crusty bread and go to town. Everyone here at Sporked really loved this for its rich, buttery, alfredo-like quality. Look, sometimes at home I make pesto with butter to enhance the luxuriousness of the spread, and this feels kind of like that. Barilla Creamy Genovese Pesto spread is more of a pesto sauce, not a pesto, but it’s great. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Seggiano Fresh Basil Pesto
Seggiano is goopy and thick and has a prominent cashew flavor. This pesto is made with a blend of pine nuts and cashews, but the flavor of the latter shines through the most. That buttery cashew nuttiness is this pesto’s greatest strength. Besides that, this pesto tastes cheesy and herby and highly flavorful thanks to the nuts and other high-quality ingredients. For instance, they use fresh Ligurian basil that’s preserved in olive oil once it’s picked. The quality here is great. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Filippo Berio Tomato & Ricotta Pesto
This pesto made me google “what makes pesto pesto?” It’s obviously not the basil, because this pesto contains zero basil. Luckily, a quick internet search revealed that pesto is called “pesto” because it comes from the Italian word “pesta,” which means to pound or to crush. Pesto is traditionally made with a mortar and pestle to grind up whole ingredients until it becomes a sauce. Okay, now that the etymology lesson is over, go buy this pesto! It’s totally not what you expect when you buy pesto, but it’s incredible. It’s creamy, bright, and a little tangy. This is definitely one of the best store bought pesto options you’ll find at the grocery store. —Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Mantova Vegan Basil Pesto
This vegan basil pesto is amazing, and I think it has something to do with the fact that it’s made with potatoes and tofu. It’s just super creamy, herbaceous, and rich. The potatoes lend such a lovely starchiness to this pesto that makes it hearty and substantial. Without potatoes and tofu, this would feel too simple, light, and lacking. I really think this is genius stuff. Mantova Vegan Basil Pesto is closer to number one than you might expect, and makes a good argument for vegan food. The best jarred pesto absolutely doesn’t need animal products to be good. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Good & Gather Basil Pesto Sauce
If you want good pesto without having to hunt for it, try Good & Gather. It’s affordable and delicious. You don’t have to have a membership card to buy it (looking at you, Costco) or wait four to seven days for it to arrive from a specialty website. It’s balanced, it’s fresh, and it’s a beautiful color. I would absolutely buy this again the next time I’m at Target and craving a pasta dinner. —Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- Buitoni Pesto with Basil
I love Buitoni’s refrigerated pesto because it isn’t too oily. This pesto is a little chunky and a bit creamy. Plus, it’s super thick. This would obviously be great on pasta, but it would also be great on fish or chicken. Personally, I’d use this as a sandwich spread or plop a few dollops on top of a pizza after it was cooked. This pesto feels multipurpose, so I think you should have it on hand at all times. —Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Kirkland Basil Pesto
Kirkland pesto has a cult following online, and it lived up to the hype. It’s just so rich, cheesy, earthy, and sebaceous. The olive oil is high quality, so it’s got that nice bit of fruity bitterness to it. The flavor of the pine nuts really shines through, and the Pecorino Romano adds such a lovely sharpness, too. It’s not overloaded with garlic, which is a mistake a lot of people make when they make pesto. This just has a pure nutty, cheesy, oily, and herby flavor. It comes refrigerated, and it uses D.O.P (Protected Designation of Origin) Genovese basil and Pecorino Romano. Hard to beat Kirkland basil pesto. In fact, you can’t. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Costco
Best Traditional
Best Secret Ingredient
Best Creamy
Best Alternative Nut
Best Unique
Best Vegan
Best Budget
Best Thick
Best of the Best
Other Products We Tried:
Classico Traditional Pesto, Barilla Rustic Basil Pesto, Private Selection Basil Pesto, Simple Truth Organic Basil Pesto, Freak Flag Tomato Pesto, DeLallo Simply Pesto, Rao’s Tomato Pesto, Rustichella D’Abruzzo Pesto Genovese, Whole Foods 365 Basil Pesto, Felippo Berrio Red Pesto, Legano Vegan Pesto, Stonewall Kitchen Basil Pesto, Trader Joe’s Pesto, Rao’s Basil Pesto, De Cecco, Bolani Vegan, O Organics, Mantova Organic Red Pesto, Compagnia Sanremo Basil Pesto, Alessi Pesto
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Kirkland pesto is the best! I’ve been using it for years.
How long does the Kirkland pesto last after opening?
Have you ever substituted Pesto on pizza? If you haven’t than give it a try topped with feta and sun dried tomatoes 👨🍳 (chefs Kiss)
Best store-bought in my opinion is definitely buitoni,, but that’s refrigerated so I don’t think it counts.
refrigerated counts – we had Kirkland number one.
I’ll add it to the list when we revisit these pestos. good catch. thanks!
100% agree. It is absolutely the best store-bought pesto!