Skip to main content

Red Walnut Pesto



In case you don't know I have another blog, where I talk about travel, books and food; in the last travel post I talked about my trip to Austria, and Imogen and Günther's walnuts. Not only they gave me some red walnuts, but also some walnut oil. In the photo above you can see the walnut plantation (only one tree produces the red walnuts).




I decided to make a walnut pesto for pasta. Using a mortar and pestle I mushed the red walnuts with a peeled garlic clove, then slowly I added some walnut oil, and some freshly grated parmesan cheese (this is optional, you can just use a little salt instead).




The pesto was great! I cooked some pasta with rocket (I added the rocket leaves to the pot a few minutes before draining the pasta), and I used the pesto as a sauce. We really liked it and I'll definitely make it again!

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©
Labels:

Comments

  1. KaterinaJuly 30, 2010 at 4:46 AM

    This pasta has all the right ingredients. I am sure it tastes great!

    ReplyDelete
  2. FaithJuly 30, 2010 at 9:03 AM

    The red walnuts are beautiful! This must have been delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AlessandraJuly 30, 2010 at 10:55 PM

    Thank you Katerina and Faith :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. JoJuly 31, 2010 at 2:50 AM

    Yummy!

    ReplyDelete
  5. TREAT AND TRICKJuly 31, 2010 at 6:28 AM

    Red walnut looks lovely, simple and yummy pasta...

    ReplyDelete
  6. AlessandraAugust 1, 2010 at 8:58 AM

    Hi Treat and Trick, and welcome. :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to make Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum), and Sweet New Zealand

Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum) Before I start I would like to say that I don't have a sugar thermometer, essential if you are really into confectionery, and that I didn't use much sugar for these Turkish delights. Many recipes use much more sugar, and it is not that I wanted to make a low sugar treat here (it is still pretty sweet), it is just that making it at home really makes me realize how much sugar there is already in my diet, and if I can have something with a little less... well, why not! This method is 'home friendly' i.e. these can be made at home with very little effort and equipment, and the recipe comes from my book  Sweet As...  where I also have the recipe for lavender and orange blossom Turkish Delights. Ingredients 1 l water 300 g sugar 2 tbsp lemon juice 100 g cornflour 1 tbsp frozen raspberries 1 tbsp rose water icing sugar (very little) and cornflour (lots) to dust. In a pot put hal...
9 comments
Read more

Silver beet Paneer, a variation of Palak Paneer

The other day I showed you my curry made with borage , ‘invented’ because I have tons of it in the garden! The other green-leaf crop that does well in Auckland is silver beet. My old plants (from last year!) got so tall that I started collecting only the little leaves from the stalks, and they look like spinach. One of my favourite Indian dishes is Palak Paneer (or Panir), spinach with panir cottage cheese, and this variation is made using my silver beet. I washed (many times!) the small silver beet leaves, and then I steamed them and drain them. In a heavy pot I heated 2 tbsp of vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil) and sautéed for 30 seconds: 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1/2 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp turmeric 1/3 tsp ground chili then I added 2 roughly chopped shallots and, after 3 minutes, a good pinch of salt and the cooked silver beet. I cooked everything on low for about 20 minutes (you may need to add just a little water if the silver beet is too dry) and then finely pureed the content ...
5 comments
Read more

Home Made Marzipan Sweets

This is another recipe from my book Sweet As , and something that I love to make for Xmas. I would like to say that for marzipan you should get the best almonds around, natural, but here in New Zealand the almonds taste different from the ones in Italy. They are imported, not sure where from most of the time, but they are not top grade almonds. Still, with a few tips, you can make your marzipan taste great even with 'regular' almonds! Buy them natural, not blanched, you need to blanche then yourself or the result will be too dry. To blanch them you need to put them in boiling water for a couple of minutes, and then add cold water and take the skin off, one by one. For this recipe you will need: 200 g almonds 100 g icing sugar 5 apricot kernels. As I was saying before, the almond here have little taste, so I like to collect the stones from apricot and get the almonds out. They are a real pain to crack! In the photo above you can see apricot stones and kernels. The apricot kernel...
13 comments
Read more