I must confess: I have a deep passion for pesto, yet I had never attempted to make it myself until now. Barbara Kingsolver’s approach to preparing pesto in large batches, as described in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (which Lesley graciously sent to me from Bordeaux!), caught my attention. Unfortunately, my small basil plant isn’t nearly mature enough to yield enough for a substantial batch, leaving me at a bit of a loss.
I stumbled upon arugula pesto, and as you all know, I’m a big fan of arugula (just check out my arugula pasta salad). I figured it would be an ideal spring green to use in my pesto. After some searching, I discovered a recipe for arugula walnut pesto. The creator, Elise from Simply Recipes, suggested that walnuts pair better with arugula than pine nuts, which I appreciated since walnuts are significantly more affordable!
On a delightful weekend evening, I dedicated around thirty minutes to prepare this pesto and stored the leftovers in an ice cube tray for future use. Now, whenever I crave pesto for pasta, pizza, or toast, I simply thaw a few green cubes.
Arugula Walnut Pesto
Ingredients:
- 4 cups packed fresh arugula (thick stems removed if not using baby arugula)
- 1 cup walnut halves
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 12 garlic cloves
- unpeeled
- 2 garlic cloves
- peeled and minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- to taste
- ½ to 1 full lemon
- squeezed
Instructions:
- 1. Over medium-high heat
- lightly brown the unpeeled garlic cloves
- about ten minutes. Peel off the skins once they have cooled down. 2. Over medium-high heat
- toast the walnuts until fragrant
- about three to five minutes. 3. In a food processor
- combine the arugula
- salt
- walnuts
- and all the garlic. 4. Pulse while drizzling in the olive oil. 5. Remove the mixture from the processor and put it into a bowl. Stir in the Parmesan cheese
- freshly ground pepper
- and a big squeeze of lemon
- to taste.