The lemon pesto is a fresh, flavorful, and fragrant sauce perfect for dressing pasta or for delicious summer bruschetta. To make lemon pesto, it’s essential to choose fruits with edible peels since they are the key element of the recipe. Then add basil, pine nuts, almonds, Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, and blend everything. You can make lemon pesto while the pasta is cooking or prepare it the day before as it keeps in the fridge for a few days. It’s also excellent on cold pasta. Spaghetti, linguine, mezze maniche, or rigatoni will have a “sparkling” touch with lemon pesto.
Not to be missed
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Affordable
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 2 People
- Cooking methods: No Cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer
Ingredients
- 1 lemon (for the peel)
- 1/2 lemon (for the juice)
- 2.7 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup almonds
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
- 10 leaves fresh basil
- 1/2 clove garlic
- to taste salt
Tools
- 1 Vegetable Peeler
- 1 Citrus Juicer
- 1 Blender
Steps
My lemon had a slightly green peel which gave the pesto this vibrant color. If you use a nice yellow lemon, the pesto will be lighter.
Wash the lemon and dry it. Peel it with a vegetable peeler, avoiding the white part which would make the sauce bitter. In the blender, gather the lemon peels with almonds, pine nuts, Parmesan, basil, garlic, and salt. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon and filter it to remove the seeds (if you use a citrus juicer like mine, it won’t be necessary), add it to the rest of the ingredients, and also add the oil. Blend until you get a creamy sauce. Lemon pesto is ready to be used as desired.
Notes
Recipe source HERE.
