My father is visiting us and he’s 100% Italian. I just had to make him some of my famous pesto! The most delicious pesto sauce I have ever made contained slivered almonds instead of pine nuts. Since I had about 2 tablespoons of pine nuts left, I used them up by substituting them for 2 tablespoons of almonds. Dad loved it, even went back for seconds! Perhaps not the healthiest meal for someone in their 90s, but hey, he’s on vacation! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did.
Ingredients
- 1 bunch fresh basil leaves (about 6 cups) or 1/2 tube basil paste (found in your grocer’s produce isle)
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh or dried cilantro, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh or dried parsley, minced
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 5 garlic cloves, crushed, minced or grated
- fresh ground pepper to taste
- 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup grated Romano and Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Boil filtered water in a medium sized pan with a splash of extra virgin olive oil for your pasta of choice. I like pesto with angel hair pasta. You will find that Jovial brand makes a gluten-free angel hair pasta named in Italian (Capellini). Five ounces of uncooked pasta feeds about 2 people.
- In a food processor, add nuts, basil, garlic, pepper and seasonings; blend until nuts are well chopped.
- Add olive oil a little bit at the time.
- Add pasta to pan and cook for about 6 minutes or until it reaches your desired texture.
- Mix about 1/2 cup of pesto sauce with the pasta. Toss gently.
- Serve and top with grated Parmesan and/or Romano cheese.
Tips
- You can use all Romano or all Parmesan cheese if you like.
- If the pesto sauce clumps and does not mix well with the pasta (especially gluten-free pasta), add a little more olive oil when mixing.
- Use a mixture of pine nuts and slivered almonds, all almonds, or all pine nuts, but almonds are my favorite!
- Since not all garlic cloves are equal, I try to average them out to medium sized ones. I ended up using 2 large 1 medium and one small, which would equal about 5 medium sized ones.
