Creamy Walnut Pesto Sauce

This is a creamy Italian-style sauce that I regularly serve warm, over hot noodles or cold, spread on crackers. The combination of the sour yogurt, tangy garlic and bitter walnuts makes for a nice, balanced sauce. This recipe works best with a yogurt that contains 5% milk fat or higher. Add enough so that the sauce is a bit wetter than you'd like because the dry ingredients will absorb a fair amount of liquid. You don't need to use your best extra virgin olive oil because the food processor will ruin its flavour, pure grade olive oil is fine.

• Ready In: 1 hr 10 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 150  g parmigiano-reggiano cheese, cubed
• 200  g walnuts, shelled
• 5  garlic cloves, peeled
• 10  ml salt
• 15  ml dried basil
• 150  ml olive oil
• 500  ml yogurt
•  salt and pepper

Directions

1. Cut the cheese into 1cm cubes and chop finely in your food processor.
2. Add walnuts, garlic, salt and basil and chop until you have a rough paste.
3. Slowly add olive oil to the running food processor until the paste starts to form a ball.
4. Add yogurt to the food processor and pulse until thoroughly mixed.
5. Transfer the sauce to a bowl, cover tightly and refrigerate for one hour to allow the flavours to mingle.