Arugula and Walnut Pesto

"The strong, meaty flavor of the walnuts balances out the astringency of the arugula, a good blend of flavors."
 
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photo by Sandi From CA photo by Sandi From CA
photo by Sandi From CA
photo by Sandi From CA photo by Sandi From CA
Ready In:
15mins
Ingredients:
6
Serves:
4
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ingredients

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directions

  • Brown 6 garlic cloves with their peels on in a skillet over medium high heat until the garlic is lightly browned in places, about 10 minutes. Remove the garlic from the pan, cool, and remove the skins.
  • Toast the nuts in a pan over medium heat until lightly brown, or heat in a microwave on high heat for a minute or two until you get that roasted flavor. In our microwave it takes 2 minutes.
  • Combine the arugula, walnuts, roasted and raw garlic into a food processor. Pulse while drizzling the olive oil into the processor. Remove the mixture from the processor and put it into a bowl. Stir in the Parmesan cheese.
  • Because the pesto is so dependent on the individual ingredients, and the strength of the ingredients depends on the season or variety, test it and add more of the ingredients to taste.
  • Mix with freshly prepared pasta of your choice. You may need to add a little bit of water or more olive oil to mix the pesto more evenly with the pasta.
  • Makes enough pesto sauce for an ample serving of pasta for four people.

Questions & Replies

  1. Can this be frozen?
     
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Reviews

  1. I skipped the first step, and I used half arugula, half basil. The outcome was THE best pesto I have ever had in my life. My roommate brought some to work the next day, and now people are giving her money for the ingredients so I can make some more. LOL. Thank you.
     
  2. Great recipe. I didn't have time to toast the extra garlic - but I absolutely will next time. Only other change I made was to add a squeeze of lemon juice to taste. Really delicious. Can't wait to make again with the toasted garlic.
     
  3. went by another review and added about a 1/2 tspn of salt...big mistake! I was using the ready grated Kraft-type parm cheese which already has lots of salt...should have left it alone! Don't add salt if you're using that type of cheese! wondering how I can fix this..because I think it would've been awesome if I hadn't ruined it!
     
  4. was good. family approved, but needed salt. served w/ garlic and finely chopped Brazilian spinach, sauteed in evoo. ate w/ pasta.
     
  5. This was a lovely pesto, but I thought browning 6 cloves of garlic on the stove until browned in spots was not nearly enough to mellow the flavor of the cloves and it was a very strong concentration of garlic heat. For our tastes, I think using either fewer cloves or 6 of oven-roasted garlic, where the flavor is almost sweet, would have been better. Still, I was pleasantly surprised that I liked this pesto so much since I'm such a huge fan of basil & pine nut pesto, but it was great! I froze what we didn't use in ice cube trays, then wrapped the cubes individually in plastic wrap. They all then went into a ziplock in the freezer. I love having pesto this convenient. Thank you for posting, Mercy!
     
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

Greetings everyone! My name is Mary and I am a native Floridian. I live in Central Florida with my wonderful husband of 13+ years. I enjoy cooking simple dishes with simple ingredients.
 
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