Friday, July 23, 2010

Pesto Sauce

Oh the joys of gifted garden produce! This time it was a large amount of basil! I knew it was time to look for a pesto recipe and this one had great promise. Tasting it was heavenly.

The only thing I needed to do was to substitute the pine nuts. They are more than $22 a pound here lately, so I've used cashews instead. I read that you can also use almonds and maybe even walnuts.

Pesto Sauce

1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup pine nuts (can use other nuts)
5 whole cloves garlic
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns (or to taste)

In Vitamix: put all ingredients (except salt and pepper) in container and blend on low turning dial up to a "7" while using the tamper to get all the leaves into the blades. Stop when everything is still a little chunky, but blended well. Season to taste.

In food processor: process everything using the pulse setting, following all other instructions above.

Sun-dried tomato option: add 1/2 cup rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes to the ingredients.

Other herb/green options: Can use cilantro or parsley for part of the basil in this recipe. Can also use spinach or kale the same way. Great for stretching a small amount of basil for this recipe...still great flavor.

2 comments:

Kristen said...

I use sunflower seeds for pine nuts here. :)

Loretta said...

That's a great idea! Even mixing in some raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas) too! Lots of options.