I LURVE pesto. Not so much the traditional way on pasta. That always seems a bit carbohydrate laden and too low a vegie quotient for me. No, I’m a big fan of pesto on toast, on sandwiches, on crackers, as a dip, with boiled potatoes or a dollop on top of a soup/pasta sauce. And well, I admit it, sometimes I just like to eat a spoonful all by itself!
Normally I just make a basil-pine nut combo. But we’re trying to eat seasonally and there are no Australian sources of pine nuts. So I’m experimenting a bit and this week I made a mint-pistachio pesto. It was yummy (notice past-tense because the pesto was gobbled up rather quickly and is now just a fond memory). My inspiration was a recipe in the September 2010 edition of Notebook: but I made enough changes that I can safely call it my pesto recipe now.
Pistachio and Mint Pesto
- 70 g pistachios, toasted
- big handful of grated parmesan
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 1 cup of mint leaves
- ¼ cup virgin olive oil
- lemon juice to taste (I used a bit less than ½ a lemon)
- salt and pepper to taste
1. Place pistachios, parmesan, garlic and mint in a food processor
2. With the motor running add the oil in a thin stream to combine
3. Taste and add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Give the food processor a quick pulse to mix.
4. I like mine chunky, but if you like it smoother, give the processor a few more pulses until you get the consistency you like
5. Serve immediately or store in the fridge for up to about 4 days. It keeps better with a thin layer of olive oil covering the surface, but the lemon juice prevents a lot of the oxidation that could occur so the oil layer isn’t necessary.
I hope you enjoy the pesto as much as we did!
Oh I’ll try this for sure!
Oh great! Let me know how it goes.
Great! Thank you for sharing your pesto recipe. There is so much more that can be done with pesto, I have been meaning to stop buying it in a jar and try making my own. I heard you can even make a great pesto from stinging nettles, but I have yet to try this …
Ooo stinging nettles. That sounds really interesting. Do you need to cook the stinging nettles first to get rid of the sting or does the action of pesto-ing somehow neutralise them?
The sting is in the tiny hairs so as soon as you heat or mash the leaves up, they are neutralised.
Thanks Seymour. I knew cooking neutralised the sting but had no idea that mashing them up would have the same effect. I love how much I learn by keeping this blog
I also love pesto- will definitely give this recipe a go
Hi Becka. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
This does look delicious. I like the idea of stinging nettles too.
We are about to harvest our basil and make enough pesto for the year. I feel very lucky because we have lots and lots of pine nuts from the pinon trees in our yard that are just about ready to harvest also.
Ohh I am so jealous – your very own pinon tree for pine nuts!
Pingback: The BEST summer pasta | Tales from a Well-Stocked Larder