Sun-dried Tomato pesto spread
This jar of delicious Sun-dried tomato pesto has turned our turkey tomato toast breakfast into a gourmet Italian treat
Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Serves: ~20+ servings
Ingredients:
2-6 cloves of fresh garlic (2-3 if East Coast hard neck garlic with stronger flavor, 4-6 if smaller/West Coast soft neck garlic with milder flavor)
4-5 oz / 1 loosely packed cup of sun-dried tomato
1 cup of loosely packed fresh basil leaves
½ cup of walnuts (pecans, pine nuts, etc. would all work)
.5-1 cup of extra virgin olive oil (for mixing and to top off the jar)
6-8oz of aged cheese (optional)
The Comte cheese was added later, and I ended up using a lot more walnuts and olive oil than pictured
Cooking Tools:
Food processor
Directions :
1. Chop the sun-dried tomatoes in a food processor until it’s in smaller chunks, about 1 min.
2. Add in the garlic and continue to chop, followed by walnuts, cheese, then drizzle in the olive oil.
3. Lastly, blend in the basil until everything is finely chopped.
4. Taste to decide if anything needs to be adjusted (too salty? Add more walnuts and oil. Not enough flavor? Throw in some more garlic/tomato)
Forgot to add the cheese and in it goes!
Stay healthy with Annie:
I was looking at our early autumn basil last week trying to decide what to do with it given our tomato production has ceased, thought of the lovely sun-dried tomatoes we picked up in June from Padova (originally produced in Perugia) - and decided to give this experiment a shot. So glad I did because this has turned out to be one of my two top favorite recipes recently (the other being my Gochujang everything sauce for rice, chicken, potatoes… more to come) and we now look forward to our breakfast toast with much anticipation! The aroma of the fragrant fresh basil and umami flavor of the sun-dried tomatoes, plus the freshness of the olive oil, really reminds me of a beautiful summer day overlooking the hills in Italy despite us going into fall!
The reason I didn’t add any salt to this recipe is the salt content is quite high in these sun-dried tomatoes since it’s also how these tomato are preserved so there’s no spoilage - if you dried your own without salt, I recommend adding 1-2 tsp of salt depending on your preference.
This pesto is wonderful paired with toast and a nice butternut squash bisque, and given the high salt content - I also used a big tablespoonful of it in making my hummus this week and it seasoned it perfectly! Because it is a recipe where the grassiness of the olive oil comes through, I recommend using a bottle of high polyphenol olive oil if you have one handy (stronger flavor and higher antioxidant). Aside from how delicious this pesto is - it’s also great to know the ingredients you’re putting into your own spreads and avoiding the seed oils that exists in most commercial sandwich spreads and mayos - sans preservatives too.
If you make this - I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!
Voila!
Simple morning toast + coffee while making the most of the last bit of New England summer sunshine