So last night I was determined to make some pesto. But I didn’t have any pine nuts and the heak if I was going to drive all the way into town for pine nuts. Besides the fact that I’m cheap and would probably refuse to pay what they wanted for their stale pinecone seeds anyhow.
I’ve heard that you can make pesto using other nuts such as walnuts or pecans. And I had both! Well, I have both somewhere. Couldn’t find the pecans, so I used walnuts. Two cups (lightly packed) of fresh basil leaves, one cup of walnuts, 1/3 cup olive oil, ¼ cup parmesan cheese, 1 tsp. garlic salt & a dash of pepper. Blend it all up & serve over pasta! I had picked some more lambs quarters so I sautéed them up and added that to the cooked spaghetti.
The bright green pesto started to brown pretty quickly though. I made it before I started the pasta and squash so probably should have made it last. Maybe adding a bit of lemon juice would have kept it green longer. Still tasted good.
I’ve also heard that you can freeze the extra pesto in ice cube trays and then defrost the pesto-cubes as needed. Extra. Yeaaaahhhhh. Around here, there never seems to be “extra” food.
Interesting idea though.
Our family loves pesto! I have heard that walnuts and pecans both work well if you're out of pine nuts. I freeze mine in small jars and it will last a year (I only know this because I found some from last summer lost in the back of the freezer). Try it as your sauce on pizza instead of tomato based pizza sauce. It is delicious.
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