Community Pick
Zesto Pesto
photo by Katanashrp
- Ready In:
- 10mins
- Ingredients:
- 11
- Yields:
-
1 lb of pasta
- Serves:
- 4
ingredients
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
- 5 black peppercorns
- 1 cup firmly packed spinach leaves, stems discarded, washed well and spun dry
- 1 cup firmly packed fresh basil leaf
- 1⁄2 cup olive oil
- 1⁄4 cup very dry white wine
- 1⁄2 cup cashews, toasted lightly and cooled or 1/2 cup pine nuts
- 1⁄2 cup parmesan cheese
- 1 lemon, zest of
- 1 lb linguine (or your favourite pasta) or 1 lb tagliatelle pasta noodles (or your favourite pasta)
directions
- Mince and mash the garlic to a paste with salt and peppercorns.
- In a processor or blender, puree spinach with basil, oil, wine, cashews, Parmesan, lemon zest and garlic paste.
- The pesto keeps, covered with a thin film of olive oil and chilled, up to 2 weeks.
- This makes enough for 1 lb of pasta.
Questions & Replies
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Reviews
-
DH is a meat and potato kinda guy... but he loved this! I used it over chicken breast and cheese tortellini with sun-dried tomato french bread. Fanstastic - thanks for posting! Update 12/07: I love the 'skinny' version of this Pesto Sauce: I use a high quality white wine, double the amount called for and toss in some lemon juice in place of the full zest - then reduce the olive oil by about half. I also use reduced fat parmesan cheese. Fantastic! I've also noticed that (oddly enough) I preferthe cashews over pine nuts in this recipe.
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I enjoyed this pesto, especially the addition of fresh spinach to it, which I've never done. The only issue I had was that I found three garlic cloves to be WAY too strong for me, and I love garlic. Obviously, its "zesto" pesto, so I should have anticipated that, but I found that I had to cut the overly intense garlic with some more nuts and oil. I do have to say that the flavor mellowed after two days in the fridge. As far as pesto recipes go, this one is a keeper!!
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This pesto tastes light and is so refreshing! I used a little less olive oil (just added the oil until it came to the right consistency.) I served it with linguine and the family actually favored this dish more after the pasta had cooled, kind of like a pasta salad. Next time, I'll serve the pesto & pasta as a side dish instead of a main meal because I think chicken, fish or steak would go great with this. I'll also try adding this pesto to crostinis and maybe top them with a little feta. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
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Tweaks
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My DH loved this and he is the pickiest eater I know so thank you for the recipe! I love the use of spinach in this. The only thing I would change about this recipe is to add the juice from the lemon. Once I did, it tasted much better. I felt it needed the extra "zing". I also substituted pumpkin seeds for the pine nuts (they are waaay too expensive) and it turned out great.
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DH is a meat and potato kinda guy... but he loved this! I used it over chicken breast and cheese tortellini with sun-dried tomato french bread. Fanstastic - thanks for posting! Update 12/07: I love the 'skinny' version of this Pesto Sauce: I use a high quality white wine, double the amount called for and toss in some lemon juice in place of the full zest - then reduce the olive oil by about half. I also use reduced fat parmesan cheese. Fantastic! I've also noticed that (oddly enough) I preferthe cashews over pine nuts in this recipe.
-
This pesto tastes light and is so refreshing! I used a little less olive oil (just added the oil until it came to the right consistency.) I served it with linguine and the family actually favored this dish more after the pasta had cooled, kind of like a pasta salad. Next time, I'll serve the pesto & pasta as a side dish instead of a main meal because I think chicken, fish or steak would go great with this. I'll also try adding this pesto to crostinis and maybe top them with a little feta. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
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OK, here goes. I live in Athens, Greece. I moved out here many, many years ago from Ottawa, Canada - so I am blessed in having two wonderful heritages!
I suffer from compulsive obsessive behaviour with regard to food and my psychiatrist thought it would be a good idea to find a 'society' where many have the same problem and try to find a cure.
So far, I've copied a couple of thousand recipes from this site and my psychiatrist has thrown the towel in and refuses to answer the phone when I call.
What did I do wrong?
Got 3 kids that keep me on the go - 10 and under at this point (2008) - I may not get round to updating this for a few years, so you'll have to do your own maths.
I teach English full-time and Greek Cookery part-time. I would like to make the cooking part of it full-time and the English Grammar part of it part-time.
That's all for now.