Tomato Almond Pesto is a traditional Sicilian recipe that is great to use with pasta, sandwiches or as salad dressing.
For the final day of this week’s ‘Italian Sauces’ theme, I made a traditional Sicilian pesto known as Trapanese. It is nothing but a Tomato Almond pesto and a delicious variation to traditional basil pesto. After posting 2 cooked pasta sauces, I thought this no cook pasta sauce would be a great addition to my recipe repertoire.
I wanted to try a pesto recipe for this week because it is easy to make and is very versatile. Pesto can be made with lots of different ingredients — from parsley and arugula to tomatoes, roasted red peppers and more. But a flavorful pesto needs 2 important ingredients — good quality olive oil and toasted garlic (to tame the sharp raw flavor).
This Tomato Almond Pesto recipe is from America’s Test Kitchen, ‘The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook‘. This recipe uses cherry/ grape tomatoes and toasted almonds. Pepperoncini (hot pepper in vinegar) adds a nice, spicy kick to the recipe. But I didn’t have it on hand, so used red wine vinegar and crushed red pepper flakes instead. As I said before pesto is very versatile.
It is great on pasta, but it can easily jazz up just about anything, from sandwiches and omelets to salads and soups. My favorite way to use pesto is to stir in couple of tablespoons to equal parts mayonnaise and sour cream for a quick dipping sauce. Also dollop of pesto in soup adds a nice, herbal aroma and tons of flavor.
Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 86.
Tomato Almond Pesto
Ingredients
- 2 cups Cherry or Grape Tomatoes
- ½ cup Fresh Basil leaves
- ¼ cup Toasted Slivered Almonds
- ½ tsp red wine vinegar
- ¼ tsp Crushed Red pepper flakes
- 1 Garlic clove
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- To taste Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- Dry roast unpeeled garlic clove in a small skillet on medium heat until the color of the clove changes slightly, about 5~7 minutes. Let the garlic cool slightly, then peel and mince.
- Blend/ process all the ingredients except for olive oil and parmesan cheese until smooth, scraping down the bowl as needed. Next add the olive oil slowly until all the oil is incorporated.
- Transfer pesto to bowl, stir in cheese and season with salt & pepper.
- Use right away on pasta, sandwiches etc. Or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze for longer storage.
- When tossing pesto with cooked pasta, add some of the pasta cooking water to loosen the consistency of pesto.
Vaishali
Wow that’s a interesting no cook sauce ! Now what do we replace wine with or may be one can skip it completely . Sounds very flavourful and definitely versatile !
Srivalli
Sounds like a fantastic sauce to have handy, very lovely pictures Pavani. I enjoyed your theme this week!
Rafeeda - The Big Sweet Tooth
Never heard of a pesto this way, this sounds so flavorful… I am just wondering the riot in the mouth when one spoonful goes in…
Jyoti Babel
Great choice of pasta sauces under the theme. I generally make my pesto with almonds or walnuts as pinenuts are not readily available here.
This sauce is great with pasta or can be used as a dip or spread. Loved your shots again.
sapana
I love almond based pestos and this tomato almond pesto is definitely calling my name. Looks incredibly delicious.
Harini
Very interesting ingredients for the pesto. shall try it out soon.
Manjula Bharath
Wow love this pesto awesome a lot, looking so yummy in the pasta.Pesto with a kick of wine vinegar sounds interesting.. You always amaze me with your presentation pavani , and very sharp images 🙂
Priya Suresh
Very interesting pesto, and never thought of making pesto with fresh tomatoes. Wish i get a bottle of this pesto to enjoy with pastas.
Mayuri Patel
Love this version of pesto sauce Pavani, looks very tempting. Just the right sort of sauce for pasta on hot days.
Bhawana
Looks great actually. I think this can a great sandwich spread as well. With so many healthy ingredients I am in love with this one especially.
Ritu Tangri
This indeed is a great pesto recipe. The best thing is it is no cooking , just grinding the ingredients to a smooth paste. And that pasta looks soooo tempting