Pistachio Pesto with Basil

What goes in pistachio pesto?

To make my pistachio pesto recipe, you’ll need the following ingredients.

• Fresh basil; if basil isn’t in season or you don’t have enough, you can use half baby spinach and half basil. You only want the leaves, no stalks as they’re a bit stringy and tough (although if my basil is flowering I throw in the flowers).
• Shelled pistachio nuts; I bought mine shelled but if yours have shells on, pop them off before beginning the recipe.
• Fresh garlic; please please don’t use pre-chopped garlic from a jar here, it will make the entire batch of pesto taste strangely metallic.
• Kosher or flaky salt; I use Maldon salt flakes but you don’t need to buy it especially for this.
• Ground black pepper; I go fairly heavy-handed on pepper as it’s a beautiful complement to the slight peppery notes of the basil.
• Freshly grated parmesan cheese; pre-grated will work but you may need a little extra because the flavor of pre-grated isn’t as intense.
• Extra virgin olive oil; this is the recipe to use that special bottle of fancy oil, because you’ll taste it in the finished pesto.

Note the requirement for fresh items above. It’s really important here to use fresh herbs, fresh garlic and, preferably, fresh parmesan that you grate yourself from a block. All these will be the difference between a fabulous sauce with loads of aroma and flavor, and a sad bland one.

How to make pistachio pesto with basil

I told you my pistachio pesto was an easy recipe, and it really is.

First, pop the basil, nuts and garlic into a food processor bowl with the salt and pepper. Pulse until everything is a coarsely chopped paste.

Add the parmesan and olive oil to the bowl and process again until you have an almost smooth mixture that’s somewhere between pourable and ‘able to stand up a spoon’.

That’s it! You can use your pistachio basil pesto immediately or store it for later.

Pesto recipe variations

Although pesto is most traditional with basil and pine nuts as the main ingredients, there are loads of ways to vary it to your taste or ingredients. Try some of these:

• Swap out some or all of the basil for other soft herbs. Fresh parsley, tarragon, cilantro (coriander) and baby spinach leaves are all great.
• Swap the pistachios for pecans, cashews, almonds or macadamia nuts. Each will give its own nuance to the pesto.
• Make it spicy. Add some red pepper flakes when blending the pesto for an extra kick.
• Make it creamy. Jamie Oliver has a trick where he crumbles and stirs a cooked potato into his pesto. It’s not pesto potatoes, rather it makes your pesto really creamy and silky. Sounds weird but it’s great!

I mentioned above a few ways I like to use pesto. Here are plenty more!

• Pistachio pasta or gnocchi. Simply mix the pesto through freshly cooked pasta or gnocchi, for a simple and super tasty meal. Extra parmesan, olive oil and lemon juice are all optional but recommended. I also like adding cooked green beans or broccoli, which go so well with the pesto and bump up the nutritional value of the meal.
• Dollop it over sheet pan chicken or fish.
• Stir through creamy mashed potatoes for pesto potatoes.
• Serve as a garnish for soup or slow cooked meat.
• Rub it under the skin of a chicken before roasting (I sometimes do this with my favorite roast chicken method, omitting the butter and gently pushing the pesto under the skin of the bird before cooking).

You can store pesto in the fridge for a few days, or the freezer for a couple of months.

To refrigerate pesto, put it into a jar or plastic container and smooth out the top. Cover with a thin layer of olive oil to stop it browning. Keep in the fridge for up to 4 days.

To freeze pesto, you can put it into a container with olive oil as for refrigerating, but I prefer ice cubes of pesto. Divide your pesto up in an ice cube tray and freeze. Once it’s frozen, you can pop the cubes out into a freezer bag or vacuum seal bag, then seal and store for up to 8 weeks.

I hope you try my pistachio pesto recipe soon, it’s such a great thing to have on hand (and if you make too much, you can always gift some to friends and family! No one I know has ever been sad to receive a little jar of pesto).