Pesto Recipe Without Nuts

Pesto is actually a sauce that is used mainly in the Italian food and especially the Italian pasta recipes. Historically, pesto recipe was made with the help of the mortar and pestle; using several herbs like basil, cilantro and garlic. In traditional pesto recipes, pine nuts are the key ingredient that a real pesto aficionado prefers to die for! The reason is, pine nuts add a distinct taste and certain special texture to the pesto. But what about the people who like pesto sauce recipe without pine nuts? Well, here is some help as I present some mouth watering pesto recipes without nuts.

Basil Pesto Recipe without Nuts
Ingredients

• 1 bunch of basil
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 oz grated Parmesan cheese
• Freshly ground pepper (black pepper)
• Salt to taste
• 4 cup ice cubes

Procedure
Discard the basil stems and pluck the leaves aside. Take a large bowl and place the ice cubes in it. Now add 2 quarts of cold water into it and place a strainer just atop to get ice water. Take a large saucepan and add 3 quarts of water to it and bring it to boil. Add garlic to the boiling water and cook for mere 30 seconds. Take out the garlic with slotted spoon and add basil leaves to the water. Cook the basil leaves for 15 seconds and place then instantly in the ice water. Cool off the basil leaves for over a minute and drain well. Place both cooked garlic and basil leaves in the food processor and grind well. Add olive oil and grind again until finely blended. Add salt and black pepper and mix it well. Now drizzle generous amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano (Parmesan cheese) and savor your basil pesto without nuts!

Cilantro-Chili Pesto Recipe without Pine Nuts
Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh cilantro
• 1 cup fresh parsley
• 1 cup chili-lime or roasted cashews
• 3 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
• 1/2 cup grated Asiago cheese

Procedure
Take the container of the food processor and add cilantro leaves, parsley leaves, cashews, lemon juice, black pepper, salt, cayenne pepper, olive oil and the Asiago cheese. Blend well until you get a very fine and smooth texture of the sauce. You can add cashews to thicken the pesto and olive oil to make it thin. You can use it as it is or freeze it for a while and then have it, as you wish! Enjoy!

Once you learn the pesto recipe, you can make additions to it as per your choice. You can interchange and add several other herbs and vegetables like spinach as well! Besides serving pesto with different pasta recipes, one can also add these amazing pesto recipe without nuts with numerous other food varieties like

• You can spread this pesto over pizza, with a combination of red sauce or cream sauce and Alfredo sauce.
• You can stir it with risotto or mashed potatoes!
• Mixing this pesto recipe without nuts into mayonnaise can prove to be a great addition as a burger topping or as a sandwich spread.
• You can also apply this pesto into the omelet folds or just whisk with scrambled eggs. Read more on Italian recipes.

Pesto is something that you can eat with almost anything edible! Now that you know how to make pesto recipe without nuts, you can make a scrumptious pesto recipe on your own and enthrall all the 'nuts' around you! Buen provecho!