The rich texture of walnuts replace pine nuts and parmesan cheese in this quick and simple recipe. I love to serve this over spaghetti or fusilli pasta. Any leftover pesto is great on crackers. For leftover pasta, simply refresh it in a hot skillet with a splash of water and a bit of olive oil. It plumps up beautifully for Pasta with Meat Sauce or for breakfast in a Pasta Egg Scramble.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes
Yield: 3/4 c. pesto
Special tools: mini food processor or blender
For pasta:
1 bag rice pasta (Tinkyada fusilli is my favorite for nightshade free; my family prefers bionaturae fusilli)
pot of boiling wate
salt
olive oil
For pesto:
4 c. loosely packed, fresh, washed basil leaves
3/4 c. walnuts
1/4 c. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
- Boil water and add large pinch of walt and about 1 T olive oil. Add pasta and boil for approximately 7-8 minutes (several minutes less than the directions). Stir the pasta for the first minute so that pasta won’t stick together, and stir a few times as it cooks.
- Make sure not to overcook this pasta – drain it when it’s a bit al dente. Once drained, put it back in the pot and sprinkle with olive and salt and give it a good stir.
- For pesto, place basil, walnuts, olive oil, garlic and salt into a mini food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Serve over pasta and test for flavor. Because you’ve omitted the cheese, you might need a little sprinkle of salt.
- To store leftover pesto, place in an air tight container with a thin layer of olive oil on top to keep it fresh and green.