Equipment for Preparing Purées

A mortar and pestle can always be relied on for grinding nuts, puréeing vegetables, and converting various ingredients into pastes and purées. They are a most reliable tool because they allow easy control of the consistency of ingredients and avoid the sometimes brutal action of machines, which can damage the flavor of certain ingredients such as extra-virgin olive oil and basil. Their main disadvantage is that using them can be time-consuming when preparing large quantities; moreover, a large, good-quality mortar and pestle can be hard to find.