Thursday, August 26, 2010

Nut Free Pesto

I mentioned that we had an abudance of basil and that I wanted to make some pesto. I've been seeing pesto recipes and pesto references all over blogland (here, here, and here to name a few). I also recently babysat my sister's basil plant while she was on vacation. This led to even more basil! So some pesto was definitely in order. A few people have asked me to document my pesto adventure so here we go!

I started with gathering and washing some lovely fresh basil leaves (approximately 3 cups).


I got out my old workhorse food processor (my grandmother's - as an aside does anyone else have a "vintage" small appliance that they just adore?).

Pesto of course, calls for pine nuts or walnuts. Well silly me forgot to buy them when at the grocery store. Then I thought about it and realized Chelsea wouldn't be able to try my dish if I used nuts anyway (we haven't introduced her to nuts as of yet). So to get some of the nutiness flavor I used a whole head of roasted garlic (Preheat oven to 400, cut the top off a head of garlic, rub exposed cloves with olive oil, wrap in foil, roast in oven for 30 minutes - yum!). To that I added olive oil and parmesan cheese.


Pureed it all up in the food processor and it was good to go! Can you believe I forgot to take a photo. Bad, bad me. Let me tell you though that it was excellent! We couldn't even tell there weren't any nuts in it. The best part was that Chelsea adored it! She couldn't get enough and neither could we. My hubby even requested that I go ahead and not use pine nuts in future pesto endeavors.

Mmm, wishing I had some pesto right about now.


10 comments:

Alison Gibbs said...

Karla what a great idea to use roasted garlic.
Thanks for sharing your recipe with us
Alison

Dolores said...

Oh yummmmm, this sounds so delicious!!! I love garlic, and I'll try your method of roasting it.... Sure wish I had some right now!
It's great that Chelsea likes it, very healthy treat for her.
Hugs and thanks for sharing...

Fete et Fleur said...

I love pesto! It's my very favorite sauce to make. I like to serve it up with baked spaghetti squash.

I want to thank you for you encouraging comment on our room change. It's definitely a more romantic space.

xoxo
Nancy


PS The picture of you and your sweet one is adorable!!

Glenys said...

Looks and sounds yummy. But too bad the olive oil in my country are sold expensively. Love to try the recipe someday when the price gets cheaper.

Lulu said...

Hi Sugar Bear,

I want to try pesto this way. Yum! Also thanks for babysitting for my herbs.

Love ya,
Shelley

Jeanie said...

I have GOT to get my food processor fixed -- making pesto in the blender takes forever. The roasted garlic sounds wonderful -- nutty and sweet and who doesn't love roasted garlic?

natalea said...

love basil, love pesto, love these photos!
happy end of summer my friend. hope you are well!
xo natalea

Harmony said...

hi karla, its a nice recipe to work on!hope i will!nice post dear!take care!

Cape Cod Rambling Rose said...

Sounds YUMMY, Karla! And substituting with garlic sounds like a perfect idea!

OH MY - Chelsea must be about 1 1/2 now??? Don't they grow fast???!!!

Thank you for your sweet note on my blog. I just begged hubby to come home to clean up his "mess" in the yard (he's been working on the house and there is alot of loose plywood)! lol

Jasmine Bailey-Barfuss said...

ooooh pesto, yum!!!
I wish my basil grew this year...

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