Pistachio and Basil Pesto. The basil and pistachio pesto is a no-cook sauce perfect for dressing pasta dishes and more. It’s certainly a trend, but objectively pistachio, with its delicate flavor and bright color, captures the hearts of most of us. I love pistachio both sweet and savory, and in my opinion, especially in the savory version this nut gives its best! The recipe I propose today is a creamy pistachio pesto, ideal to dress pasta, bruschetta, bread and pizza.
My pistachio and basil pesto recipe is very simple and quick and is prepared in a few minutes by blending together shelled pistachios, olive oil, Parmesan, Pecorino and basil and you can decide the texture by increasing or decreasing the amount of oil according to your needs. Ready to rush to the kitchen? But now let’s go — you’ll discover how to make pistachio pesto (from Bronte). Before you run to the kitchen, I remind you that if you want to stay updated on new recipes you can follow my Facebook page and my Instagram profile and that here you’ll also find many other recipes for delicious pestos!
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Cooking methods: Other
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer and Autumn
Ingredients to make pistachio and basil pesto
- 3.5 oz pistachios (unsalted, preferably from Bronte (about 3/4 cup))
- 1/2 cup Parmesan (or Grana Padano)
- 1/3 cup Pecorino Sardo (or Tuscan pecorino)
- 1 pinch garlic powder (or 1/4 fresh clove)
- 1 pinch salt
- 30 leaves basil
Tools
- Blender
Steps
To make pistachio pesto I used unsalted shelled pistachios; I recommend those from Bronte — they’re a bit expensive but the taste is unique.
Place the blender jar in the freezer for 20-30 minutes so it’s well chilled when you use it.
Toast them in a pan for a few minutes, stirring often and taking care not to burn them. Let them cool and transfer them to the blender jar with the oil and the cheese (grated or in pieces — both are fine) and the garlic. Blend to obtain a homogeneous sauce; the more you blend, the smoother the sauce will be, but a coarser pesto will still be delicious. Avoid overheating the sauce; if necessary, put it in the freezer for 10 minutes, then taste and adjust salt if needed.
Finally add the basil leaves rinsed and patted dry with paper towels.
Blend again for 30-40 sec. If you manage not to overheat the mixture, you’ll get a beautiful bright green pesto.
Store in the fridge until ready to use.
This pesto can be used to dress pasta, bruschetta and much more. I recommend consuming it as soon as possible and freezing any leftover portion, which you can thaw in the fridge before use.
The basil in the pesto tends to oxidize after a few hours and change flavor a bit, especially if kept out of the fridge, so follow the precautions I indicated and the result will be impeccable.
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It is not essential to peel the pistachios, but using pistachios with the skin may slightly change the color of the pesto. You can replace whole unsalted pistachios with pistachio pieces (granella).
