Pea, Parsley and Walnut Pesto
I am floating on a cloud of farmer’s market bliss. Last week I fell in love with garlic scapes––so spicy, so alien-looking!––and this week I swooned over a pint of raspberries so tender and sweet, I ate them with a spoon straight from the stained green cardboard. In the past I’ve been cautiously drawn to the familiar. But this year, I am striking out. What, pray tell, is red mustard? (It’s a kicky green that’s wonderful in stir-fries.) There’s a whole world of exploration to be done under those white plastic tents standing brightly in the middle of a concrete city at the intersection of Broadway and 14th Street.
But that poetical waxing is neither here nor there, as the recipe I’m about to tell you about has no exotic ingredients. In fact, you likely have everything you need for this dinner in the pantry. Which, as far as I’m concerned, makes it a shoe-in for dinner tonight. It doesn’t hurt, of course, that for those nights when you need a bowl of pasta for dinner––and I know you know what I mean––this supper fits the bill. With the front door closed on the unpredictable and tiresome indignities of the world out there, the salve to the cruelties of the day is this rich, nutty pesto, vibrantly green and alive with garlic, tossed with a tangle of noodles. We may now consider ourselves fortified for whatever lays ahead tomorrow.
Pea, Parsley, and Walnut Pesto
from Everyday Food
Serves 4
I didn’t have quite enough walnuts, and was forced to use mostly almonds in this pesto, but found the results delightful. You’ll have leftover pesto to spread on crackers or sandwiches. Should you choose to toss it with pasta again later in the week, I found a squeeze of lemon juice helped wake up the whole affair.
2 cups frozen peas (from a 10-ounce bag)
1 cup packed fresh parsley leaves
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
2/3 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
12 ounces whole wheat linguine
Cook 1 cup peas according to package instructions. In a food processor, combine cooked peas, parsley, walnuts, Parmesan, garlic, and 1 tablespoon water. Pulse until a paste forms. With machine running, slowly add oil, processing until blended; season with salt and pepper.
In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions, adding 1 cup peas 30 seconds before end of cooking. Reserve 1 cup pasta water; drain pasta and peas. Return pasta and peas to pot; toss with 3/4 cup pesto (reserve remainder for another use), adding enough pasta water to create a sauce that coats pasta. Serve pasta with more Parmesan.
Samantha Angela @ Bikini Birthday: I had a dream last night that I was picking garlic scapes for making a pesto.
Weird.1 year ago
Kristina: Are you in possession of Deborah Madison’s wonderful book Local Flavors? Any devoted farmers market shopper (especially one in a big city!) should own this book.1 year ago
Meghan: This sounds fantastic! What a great way to enjoy your market finds.1 year ago
Katie @ cakes, tea and dreams: YUM. I, too, am obsessed with summer recipes – and I need to make pesto again. I use walnuts in my pesto anyway, but I never thought of peas!
Thanks for the great recipe!1 year ago
heather: ooo, i love pesto-fying ANY herb, pretty much! well, the leafy ones, anyway…parsley, cilantro, mint, basil (natch)…with whatever nut i happen to have in the freezer. right now it’s pistachios. walnuts, almonds, pepitas…all good. at our house, which is a no-cow-dairy house, we’ll use pecorino…though chevre could be a nice, tangy, creamy change… i’ll change up the acidy element, too…lemon juice, orange, a splash of vinegar… SO GOOD on pasta (pasta + bag of frozen shrimp + cherry tomatoes + pesto = happy dinner times), chicken, fish, lamb… yay for everything!
1 year ago
Samantha, Sounds like a great dream! Perhaps it will become reality today?
Kristina, I’m not! But now I’m going to see if the library has it. Thanks for the rec!
Katie, I pretty much think walnuts are the bomb in everything.
Heather, I’ve always wondered about cilantro pesto. Let us know if you have any tips and what you serve it with.1 year ago
Cadi: I love Heather’s use of the word ‘pesto-fying.’ I too pesto-fy all of my garden herbs into concoctions the same way, to smear on breads, toss with pasta, the usual uses. Sarah your recipe sounds wonderful, will have to try it very soon!1 year ago
DesigningDiva: Has anyone ever tried to make a pesto without using nuts? My husband LOVES the taste of pesto but cannot
eat nuts any more and he is really missing his pesto sauce. Any ideas? I wonder if I’d really miss
the taste of nuts in a nutless pesto…..probably, since I do love them!1 year ago
Sara Rose: I use peas quite often in pesto dishes but hadn’t tried making pesto out of them yet. It sounds divine and chock full o’fiber!1 year ago
EB: Hey I’ve got those latte bowls!1 year ago
Jenious: It’s been too long since I’ve made pesto. Thanks for reminding me with this fine recipe.1 year ago
heather: DesigningDiva, can your husband not have anything nutlike at all? no tree nuts, or ground nuts? pepitas could be a good choice…they’re hulled pumpkin seeds, and you can toast them and use them like nuts…yummy for snacking, or in salads, or whatev…i use ‘em in pesto all the time. otherwise, maybe try bread crumbs? good dry ones, like panko, or ones you make from stale whole wheat bread, maybe…something to give the pesto more body and heft, you know?
sarah, i made a cilantro pesto just last weekend, and put it on lollipop lamb chops (you can get a wee rack of lamb at trader joe’s for, like, $11…certainly not unreasonable for a weekend dinner for 2, i think
)…one nice thing about cilantro is (as cook’s illustrated found out) the stem is just as delicious as the leaves (unlike parsley, where the stem can be sort of bitter and not-delicious), so a) less need to carefully pluck leaves, and b) more available herb to boost the amount you’re using. but i’ll put any kind of pesto on just about anything!1 year ago
heather: oh! designingdiva! i thought of it!
miso! use white or yellow miso in place of cheese in pesto, for that same salty, umami-ish kind of awesome! use just a little, and add more til it tastes good!
i wonder if anyone will ever read this, in life…1 year ago