Look at the beautiful recipe I have for you today! I made lemon pesto! 😊🍋

It’s delicious.

The best lemon recipe (so far!) (maybe because it’s the most lemony? 😀) among all the lemon recipes in my collection! Or maybe just because it’s the latest? Ahhh who knows! Anyway, it won me over!

When Light and Tasty decided to propose a recipe rich in vitamin C for today, initially I thought of a recipe with bell pepper. But since, as you all know, vitamin C is thermolabile and disperses with long cooking, I ended up choosing a no-cook recipe. And I felt like trying to make lemon pesto, which intrigued me but I had never tried before.

I browsed the web to get an idea and found a whole world of recipes (well, it was predictable actually!). There are lemon pestos made only with the zest without juice, and others with juice, lemon pestos with lots of basil or little, with parsley or without, with lots of Parmesan or little Parmesan…

In the end, I tried to make it my way, considering two main characteristics important to me: one, with little oil (so it can be a light recipe), and two, without overdoing the Parmesan (to limit sodium).

Ready for the recipe? 😊

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Here are more of my lemon recipes, and then check out the collection!

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Cheap
Preparation time: 15 Minutes
Portions: 4
Cooking methods: No cooking
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: All seasons

Ingredients

👉 With these quantities, you get enough lemon pesto to dress 4-5 plates of pasta, or a couple of bowls to serve with an aperitif.

1 lemon (zest grated + about 1/4 cup juice)
1 oz walnuts
2/3 oz almonds
1 oz grated Parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic (small, or half a large one)
1 bunch parsley
6 leaves basil
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp water (cold)
pepper (to taste)

Tools

Immersion Blender with chopper glass

Steps

Here are the simple ingredients to make this delicious lemon pesto:
Wash the lemon well.
Grate the peel.
Squeeze the lemon and remove the seeds.
👉 If the lemon is large, to get 1/4 cup of juice, half a lemon may be enough.
Crush the walnuts.
Pour into the chopper glass: the almonds cut into two-three pieces (not whole), the walnuts, the parsley, the basil, the garlic clove (small, or half), the lemon juice, the olive oil, and two tablespoons of cold water.
Blend briefly.
Add the Parmesan.
And lastly, the grated lemon zest.
Blend until you reach the desired consistency.
👉 I left it with a grainy texture, and we liked it a lot. You can make it creamier by simply blending longer.
☝ If you want to achieve an even finer cream, it’s better to use the immersion accessory (associated with the tall and narrow glass usually provided with immersion blenders), rather than using the chopper glass like I did. In this case, you may need to adjust the amount of liquid ingredients (oil and water) to facilitate blade work.
It’s excellent for dressing pasta, try it with spaghetti! 😉😋
But it’s also delicious spread on crostini bread, give it a try!

Salt-Free Tips

Salt-Free Under each recipe, I always provide a small list of low-sodium tips. Among these, the use of lemon is recommended, as it is one of the ingredients that ‘trick’ the taste buds, allowing us to perceive less of the absence of salt (or the lesser quantity if you’re gradually reducing it). For those who still don’t know that I cook without added salt, in this article I explain the whole story of this family journey of ours, which we have been proudly following for over two decades. 😊

If you’re interested in reducing or eliminating salt, always remember to:
▫ Reduce salt gradually, the palate must get used to it slowly and should not notice the progressive reduction.
▫ Use spices. Chili, pepper, curry, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cumin…
▫ Use aromatic herbs. Basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, mint…
▫ Use seeds. Sesame, pine nuts, almonds, walnuts…
▫ Use spicy vegetables or fruit. Garlic, onion, lemon, orange…
▫ Use my salt-free vegetable granule and gomasio.
▫ Prefer fresh foods.
▫ Avoid cooking in water, prefer cooking methods that do not disperse flavors (grill, foil, steam, microwave)
▫ Avoid bringing the salt shaker to the table!
▫ Occasionally indulge in a break from the rule. It’s good for the mood and helps to persist.

If you do not want, or cannot, give up salt:
▫ You can still try my recipes, salting according to your habits.

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Light and Tasty:

And now here are the vitamin C-rich recipes from my Team colleagues:

Carla Emilia: Lemon Chicken
Cinzia: Orange Chicken Breast
Claudia: Grilled Pineapple with Walnuts
Daniela: Sweet Potatoes and Celeriac Baked with Mandarin Juice
Elena: Cups with Ricotta Cream and Kiwi
Milena: Red Currant Dessert with Orange Yogurt Cream

Delicious Recipes

Lemon Pesto