Red Pesto

I searched for ages for a recipe for this pesto and was going to give up and try out my own quantities… but then a day later I opened a magazine, and there was exactly what I had been looking for! Sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil….

… and it tasted even better than I had imagined!

So here is the recipe, the quantities slightly adapted from the original.

• 75g (3 oz) sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained
• 100ml (2/5 cup) olive oil, including a little of the oil from your jar of tomatoes
• 25g (1 oz) grated parmesan cheese
• 25g (1 oz) pinenuts
• 1 clove of garlic
• Black pepper
• 1/2 – 1 tsp dried thyme

(If you can find sun-dried tomatoes in a herby marinade like I used you can simply add herbs/seasoning to taste afterwards.)

Chop the sun-dried tomatoes roughly. Briefly dry roast the nuts in a frying pan – mind they don’t burn! Then pulse everything with a mixer to a rough puree.

That’s it!

Red Pesto with Butternut Gnocchi

I think it tastes even better a day or two later, as the flavours meld… you can keep it in the fridge for up to a week (the magazine actually said 2 to 3 weeks, but I think it will disappear before then!), but keep the surface covered with a little olive oil to seal in the flavours and preserve the colour.

We have had it on pasta, jacket potatoes, butternut gnocchi (recipe coming soon), crostini… there are endless possibilities!

Enjoy!