Can you make pesto without pine nuts

Keywords: pesto, easy, homemade, condiment, side, healthy, basil. Homemade pest o is beyond easy and can be used for so many delicious meals and snacks, plus you can use much of what you already have on hand in your pantry, fridge, and garden to make it! Take the hassle out of meal planning with: Dinner Made Easy, a FREE 1 week meal plan with full shopping list, easy dinners, nutrition information, serving suggestions for each meal, and more!

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Get it now! Share Tweet Pin Mail. Print Recipe. Pin Recipe. Description Homemade pesto is a simple and adaptable recipe that you can use as marinade, in sandwiches, on pasta, or over roasted veggies. And working with fresh basil in your kitchen makes the world seem like a better place. Basil smells like summer. You can play around with other herbs as well, instead of basil, or combine herbs. Traditionally, in Italy, pesto is classically made using a mortar and pestle.

You can also make pesto in a blender. Place the garlic and basil in a food processor or blender and pulse until everything is roughly chopped. Add the oil and pepper and process, scraping down the sides, part way through, until everything is well blended.

If it is very thick, add a bit more olive oil. Add the cheese Pecorino Romano or Parmesan your choice; more on that right below and pulse until blended in. Taste and add salt if needed. You can buy it in chunks or already grated Gasp! Oh no, how could you? Well I do, all the time. This is a pretty thick pesto, a real paste, and if you want a thinner pesto for drizzling or tossing with hot pasta you could add some hot water from cooking the pasta, or some extra olive oil.

You can freeze pesto, so it makes sense to make a big batch when a windfall of basil comes your way. Is there anything more depressing than throwing out unused extra herbs? Well, sure, there are plenty of more annoying things in the world, but still, why do it if you can help it? Spread it on a sandwich with melted mozzarella , toss it in pasta, or add it to any dish that needs a little spark. Obviously toasted pine nuts are the classic addition to pesto, but I have always made this version with walnuts without complaint.

People use a lot of different nuts in pesto— you might like one of these ideas. If you find that your pesto is too thick, add some of the water your pasta cooked in a tablespoon or two to the pasta and pesto and stir. It will help it create more of a sauce like consistency. Basil pesto without pine nuts can be stored in a jar in the fridge for up to two weeks. I like to pour a layer of olive oil on the surface then place a tight lid on. I use a mason jar for mine—if the pesto is exposed to air it will darken and may change flavor slightly so the olive oil on the top helps protect the flavor and color.

I love to freeze big batches of it every year when basil is in season. To freeze, you can fill an empty ice cube tray with the finished pesto and chill until firm.

Pop them out and store them in an air tight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. To use them, you can take out a few cubes and let them thaw at room temperature or stick them in the microwave for 25 to 30 seconds. See how you can grow basil too. It's a summer must! I make big batches to freeze and it lasts about 6 weeks after the last frost. I'm such a nut Judith. Skip straight to my Nut Free Pesto Recipe recipe. Why am I making pesto? I have a full maternity ward of greenish tomatoes which appear to be heading for delivery at the same time.

I have a marrow plant which, like some seedy London nightclub on a Friday night, has male flowers queuing up but not a single woman. And, I have basil overwhelming my herb pot, shading the sun-loving rosemary — so what better than fresh basil pesto. Apparently, nut-free pesto is standard across Italy except in Liguria and, in France, it is known as Pistou and also generally made without nuts.

All you need for nut-free pesto is fresh basil, parmesan or pecorino cheese, good quality extra virgin olive oil, garlic, salt and a squeeze of lemon juice. The point of using the pestle and mortar is that you are much more in control of how your pesto is prepared. At least in my heart, crushing the basil leaves gently will release a subtler, delicate flavour. And, the texture of a hand prepared pesto is quite different.

Lighter than the traditional Ligurian pesto I learnt to make at the World Pesto Championships a couple of years ago, nut-free pesto makes the perfect complement for summer pasta dishes, as a topping for a home-made burger , for tomato bakes or, as I did last night, as a sauce to bake fish in the oven. If you do want to make a traditional basil pesto the method is almost exactly the same, you simply add the pine nuts with the garlic at the start of the process.

Nut-free pesto is ultra easy to make and of course, you do have the option of using a pestle and mortar or whizzing this up in your food processor. To make this in a food processor add all the ingredients except the lemon juice and olive oil and blend well until you have a rough paste. Now, drizzle in the olive oil until you have a sauce of the correct consistency.

Add lemon juice and salt to taste. But, you can easily freeze it in an ice-cube tray, ready to use throughout the winter. All you need to do, once the pesto is frozen, is pop the cubes out and into a zip-lock bag and you have a convenient supply of individual portions of nut-free pesto.

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