Basil Almond Gluten Free Pesto Sauce

My father is visiting us and he’s 100% Italian. I just had to make him some of my famous gluten free pesto sauce! The most delicious pesto sauce I have ever made contained blanched, 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, and the garlic is extremely healthy! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did.

UPDATE: I’ve since made this recipe using all almonds (soaked overnight and skin removed) and it was just as delicious, if not more!

Basil Almond Gluten Free Pesto

Yield: Depends upon the amount of sauce used

Basil Almond Gluten Free Pesto

A wonderful basil gluten free pesto sauce with a twist. Use blanched almonds instead of pine nuts. The taste is incredible!

Ingredients:

  • 1 bunch fresh basil leaves (about 6 cups, not packed) 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 soaked, slivered blanched (no skin) almonds
  • 10 large garlic cloves, crushed, minced or grated
  • Fresh ground pepper, to taste
  • Salt, to taste
  • 3/4 cup grated Romano-Parmesan or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (Kraft is gluten-free) or pecorino Romano
  • 7/8 cup extra virgin olive oil (or replace 1/4 cup wirh full-fat cocunut milk)

Tips

Five ounces of uncooked pasta feeds about 2 people.

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.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.