The broccoli pesto is a great sauce to prepare in winter, a tasty and versatile version of Genoese pesto. A really simple recipe to make in minutes because you just need to blend the blanched broccoli with the classic pesto ingredients, namely garlic, pine nuts, grated cheese, oil, and basil to obtain a cream that will be perfect to use in many preparations. Not only for dressing pasta but also to accompany fish main courses, or to spread on bruschetta or crostini, to enrich soups or vegetable soups or to flavor sandwiches, wraps, savory pies, etc., in short, it can be used in many ways.
The preparation is really simple: blanch the cleaned broccoli florets and place them in ice water to prevent them from losing their green color. Pour all the ingredients into a mixer and blend until you get a homogeneous and creamy pesto.
Easy and quick to make, this broccoli pesto together with kale pesto will become one of your favorite sauces during the winter season. You just have to try it!
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Other
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Fall, Winter
Ingredients for making Broccoli Pesto
- 1.1 lbs broccoli
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup almonds
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 1 clove garlic
- basil
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt
Steps for making Broccoli Pesto
Start preparing the Broccoli Pesto by cleaning the broccoli: separate the florets from the central stalk.
Blanch the broccoli florets in salted boiling water for about 10 minutes and drain them. To keep the broccoli’s green color vibrant, immerse them in a bowl of ice water. Then drain them and let them dry on kitchen paper.
Pour the broccoli and well-cleaned basil into the mixer with the clove of garlic
Add the pine nuts, almonds, grated Parmesan cheese, extra virgin olive oil, and salt.
Turn on the mixer and blend until you get a homogeneous cream, adding more oil if necessary to make it more fluid.
Simo and Cicci recommend
You can store the broccoli pesto for 2-3 days in the fridge tightly closed in a glass jar.
You can replace the almonds and pine nuts with other nuts such as walnuts or hazelnuts.
If you don’t like the taste of garlic, you can omit it.
For a vegetarian version, you can do without grated Parmesan cheese or replace it with a plant-based cheese or nutritional yeast.
FAQ
How can I use broccoli pesto?
Like classic pesto, you can definitely use it to dress pasta or other grains like rice, couscous, quinoa. It’s also great to spread on bruschetta, to serve with croutons, to enrich savory pies, or to flavor hot soups, to accompany fish main dishes, to flavor sandwiches or wraps.
