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Sundried Tomato Pesto
Sundried tomato pesto is a fun, delicious twist on the traditional pesto alla genovese. It combines sundried tomatoes, grana padano cheese, pine nuts, basil, garlic and olive oil.
Pesto is one of my favourite pasta sauces, if not sauces in general! It’s packed with flavour, so easy to make and incredibly versatile, both in terms of what it can be made from and what it can be served with/on/in. Making it from scratch takes less then 15 minutes and I promise you, it’ll taste WAY better than the shop-bought stuff.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 375 g (approx.) 1x
- Category: Pasta
Ingredients
Scale
- 45 g pine nuts
- 35 g grana padano or parmigiano reggiano, grated
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 120 g oil-packed sundried tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped (drained weight)
- 150 ml extra-virgin olive oil
- 20 g fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
- 1 lemon, zest only (optional)
Instructions
- Place the pine nuts in a small roasting tin and bake at 180℃ until golden brown, tossing once halfway through, 5 to 7 minutes. Let cool at least 5 minutes. Alternatively, you can buy pre-toasted pine nuts.
- Transfer the toasted pine nuts to a high-powered food processor or blender and add the grana padano, garlic and sundried tomatoes.
- Blitz until finely chopped, then add the extra-virgin olive oil, basil and lemon zest. Blitz again until smooth-ish, or to your desired consistency. You may need to scrape down the sides of your food processor a couple of times.
- Seasoning wise, it shouldn’t need any salt as sundried tomatoes and grana padano are both salty. Use immediately or store in a jar with a tight fitting lid. It’ll keep in the fridge for 3 to 5 days.
- To use, cook pasta in generously salted water according to package instructions. Reserve some of the pasta cooking water. Place the pesto in a large bowl. Drain the pasta then transfer it to the bowl. Add a splash of the pasta cooking water and toss until the pesto nicely coats the pasta. Divide between bowls, top with a sprinkle of grana padano and serve.
Equipment
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Just made this pesto sauce after trying the kale one! It is absolutely delicious. Didn’t have pine nuts so I used some store bought roasted snack almonds I had lying around. & used some store bought mixed shredded cheese. It’s super flavorful.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for your review 🙂