This delicious, vibrant, rich, nutty, and easy-to-make Pistachio Pesto is a lovely twist on traditional Italian pesto. Perfect for your bruschetta, salad, or pasta!
Hello, everyone. I hope you all are enjoying your summer (Let me briefly complain that we’ve been experiencing another heatwave, and I don’t like that a lot. I was planning on making pasta with seared scallops yesterday, but I wasn’t brave enough to enter the kitchen, so we just enjoyed a delicious gazpacho. I mean, no pasta and scallops, could you imagine my level of desperation? Okay, thanks for listening. We can proceed to the second part now.)
I am going to keep it short. There are basically two (three) things I wanted to mention.
- I’ve got a new blog’s banner (header). Do you like it? I decided to update it yesterday on a spur of a moment. I must admit Andrew helped me with the design – he’s got an artistic eye. I also needed to make some adjustments to the overall appearance, to support the header. I am happy to have done a long-time-needed little rebranding.
- It’s mid of July, and I have already got so many recipes awaiting their time on this blog. I mean really a lot!
- I often combine two related recipes in one post, but I understand it’s not ideal at least for reference and search purposes. At the same time, two separate posts for the recipes that could easily be merged – that’s basically the entire week. And one week = two recipes = That’s a lot when you’re accumulating really fast new recipes to share;
- So I have come up with something really weird – something I have never done before. I am duplicating one post. One goes for Pistachio Pesto and the second for Pistachio Pesto Pasta. I don’t know if this even makes sense, but the fact I am not going to need to write down two original posts makes me happy. Let’s call it a “Cheat Blogging Day” lol. In fact, I might do the same thing soon again.
Back to this Pistachio Pesto. It’s ridiculously easy to make, and it’s also very versatile. You can tweak it as you wish, using different herbs and greens, preferably with a neutral taste as we still want to taste pistachios (So cilantro and tarragon won’t be a good choice. But I think bold arugula would be a nice choice.) I also often use some water instead of oil, just to dilute it and cut down on some fats and calories. Since I was simultaneously making Pistachio Pesto Pasta that day, I used pasta water instead. It’s a great option, too. Just be careful with adding salt – keep in mind the salted water and pistachios.
I hope you like this idea and you’re going to include it in your list of summer spreads and dips. And don’t forget to make this Pistachio Pesto Pasta, too.
See you soon!
Ingredients
- 1/2 to 2/3 shelled pistachios, salted or unsalted
- 2 cups spinach or other greens of your choice
- 1/3 cup parsley leaves
- 1-2 garlic cloves
- about 1/2 cup of extra version olive oil (you can partially use water)
- salt, pepper (optional)
Instructions
- In a food processor or blender, pulse the spinach, parsley, pistachios, garlic, and pepper together until finely chopped. Try and add salt if needed (Especially if you’re using unsalted pistachios).
- With the food processor or blender still running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until it is completely combined. Pause the food processor or blender and scrape down the sides, then pulse again until the mixture is smooth. If you’d like to make it lighter, substitute 1/2 cup water for the olive oil.
- Refrigerate in a closed container for up to 4 days.
- Enjoy!
Hi – I’m Ben, a blogger, recipe developer, and food photographer. I’m glad you’re here! I hope you will enjoy hundreds of delicious recipes and a pinch of havoc in the kitchen.
The new header looks great! Also, I support ‘lazy blogging day’ – haha. We love pesto around here, and it’s so fun to play with the ingredients to create fun new pestos. I don’t think I’ve ever used pistachios in a pesto before. I’ll have to try this soon!
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