<p>D wants to make pesto with a few friends. One of the girls is allergic to pine nuts. Looking for a good tasting recipe without nuts.</p>
<p>We eat pesto about once or twice a year, year round. But I haven’t done it without nuts. Is it just pine nuts or all nuts she’s allergic to? Walnuts work pretty good; in a pinch, I’ve even been known to throw in a scoop of peanut butter (once, anyway.) I think you could just leave the pine nuts out and It would still be pretty good.</p>
<p>I’ve made it with walnuts before, turned out pretty decent. There’s another somewhat related sauce(?) called chimichurri which is Argentinean. I forget where I found the recipe, but it’s a good mix being made mostly of basil, mint, garlic, olive oil, little bit of onion, vinegar, and a few spices. Great as a steak or pasta sauce.</p>
<p>She can eat walnuts.</p>
<p>I rarely put any nuts into pesto and it tastes just fine.</p>
<p>I don’t use nuts in pesto and it’s always been just as yummy.</p>
<p>Walnuts give the pesto that nice meatiness of pine nuts. </p>
<p>For those people using pine nuts, be sure to find Italian pine nuts, as the cheaper, more common Chinese pine nuts can cause (permanent) loss of taste in the tongue, and a continual metallic taste.</p>
<p>Or you can use pi</p>
<p>You can make pesto with basil, spinach, arugula, etc. I don’t always use nuts and agree, it tastes fine. I also don’t always use garlic or cheese. You’re going for that tart flavor. Even just the green mashed with lots of OO can be great. You know, when the concept was invented, they didn’t have strict recipes. And traditional pesto from Provence, pistou, is just OO, basil and garlic.</p>
<p>Geez, I just realized I said we eat it once or twice a year. I meant “a week.” We grow a ton of basil, and freeze for year round use.</p>
<p>And, if she can eat walnuts, you are good to go! :)</p>
<p>My family loves Pesto w/walnuts. Here’s our favorite recipe (From Silver Palate)
1 cup fresh basil leaves, washed & patted dry
2 garlic cloves, peeled & chopped
1/2 cup shelled walnut pieces
1/2 cup good olive oil
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt & pepper to taste
- put oil, basil, garlic, walnuts, cheese (in that order) into blender & process.
- Add pinch of salt and pepper to taste.
Makes 1 cups–enough to sauce 1 lb of pasta.</p>
<p>We never had a recipe. I just throw a bunch of everything in a blender in whatever order I pick it up, and blend. I will say, though, that four garlic cloves is an absolute mininum in our house.</p>
<p>Yummmmmm. I just bought some from the farmers’ market last Sunday. Yummmmmmmmmmmm.</p>
<p>Ditto on the walnuts…i use them when I don’t have pine nuts handy and I, too, use the Silver palate measurements but generally use more basil than 1 cup to get to the consistency i like.</p>
<p>My basil is groaning like crazy and I LOVE making pesto…unfortunately I end up eating it with a spoon. No joke.</p>
<p>We usually use a mix of walnuts and pecans but with the high cost of pecans this last year it’s been just walnuts…got some pine nuts at Costco a while back and now you guys have me afraid to use them…</p>
<p>^^ there are worse vices, churchmusicmom!</p>
<p>Lately, I’ve been addicted to cilantro pesto. Added bonus is that fresh cilantro is dirt cheap (3 bunches for $1 at my market.) Cilantro pesto is amazing on home made pizza, with fresh tomatoes, fresh cheese, grilled chicken to give it a bit of protein. Heaven.</p>
<p>CMM–we have so much, I freeze baggies of basil n olive oil to make pesto all winter.</p>
<p>My D3 is allergic to all nuts so I just take a portion out for her before I add the pine nuts. I also blanch the basil first in boiling water so it won’t give her an itchy mouth reaction and the side benefit of that is that it keeps it’s green color much better. Any vitamins it might lose in the water are soaked up by the pasta which is cooked in the same water. We had some tonight!</p>
<p>I mix in flat leaf parsley, especially if we have some to use up in the fridge. Typically I use walnuts. </p>
<p>We had pesto on salmon last week. Also with shrimp/pasta.</p>