Cooking & Baking
Related: About this forumTrust me on this..you will love this recipe (esp. if you are growing Sungold cherry tomatoes!)
This is a recipe for a rather unusual cherry tomato pesto (!!) that is quite remarkable.....partly because it takes essentially no time to make, but tastes like something you would swoon over in an expensive restaurant!
Ingredients:
1 lb cherry tomatoes (preferably Sungold, or something similarly delicious - Black Cherry, Galina, maybe Sweet Million)
1/3 cup toasted almonds
20 leaves fresh basil
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
1/4 or more tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup olive oil
a few grinds of black pepper
another half pound or so of small cherry tomatoes of your choice (but make sure they are good tasting!)
Combine everything except the olive oil in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal chopping blade. Pulse a few times, scrape the sides, and blend for a minute or so.
open the top chute and add the olive oil in a thin stream with the processor running - it will make a loose paste whose color is not all that appetizing....but just wait!
Cook 1 lb of pasta of your choice - we used a regular bore spaghetti, cooked al dente.
In a large bowl, add half of the cherry tomato pesto and half of the extra cherry tomatoes. Add the drained, hot pasta - then top with the rest of the pesto and cherry tomatoes - mix well.
Serve topped with a generous sprinkling of grated Parmesan Reggiano and ground black pepper.
we had this with just simple steamed zucchini topped with extra parmesan.
Warning....the flavor is addictive, hard to describe - savory, rich, complex!
If you try it, let me know what you think!
It is a recipe we saw on Lydia's Italy cooking show on PBS - we modified it just a bit.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)I'm trying to figure out how to adapt this to finger food. Have a family lawn party coming up on Sunday -- pie and snacks.
Maybe individual zucchini galettes with this pesto? Hmmm.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,038 posts)eissa
(4,238 posts)I'm definitely making this. I love making pesto, but those pine nuts can be a little pricey. I bet this would taste great with just some toasted sourdough bread.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,038 posts)SalviaBlue
(2,918 posts)I'm going to try it on zucchini "pasta".
eissa
(4,238 posts)and it really was wonderful! I have quite a bit of tomatoes growing right now, so used those instead of the cherry tomatoes. I lightly coated them in olive oil and roasted them first, then added it to the processor with the remaining ingredients. It really was lovely! Thanks for sharing
Lucinda
(31,170 posts)garlic bread as a spread.
Lucinda
(31,170 posts)She has some amazing recipes. Thankie for this! ?
grasswire
(50,130 posts)Can't have any tree nuts on the table today. Two kids with severe allergies to nuts.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)I used very dry Italian bread crumbs for the nuts. And then I used this pesto on Smitten Kitten's croissant-type galette crust. It was really delicious. I froze the extra pesto to use on pasta in the winter.