Alonti pecan pesto pasta is incredibly delicious. Homemade basil pesto with pecans is tossed with pasta and served warm as a side dish or unprepossessed as a pasta salad.
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What Makes Pecan Pesto So Good?
Pesto is unchangingly made with pine nuts, right? Well, no. There is a wide variety of pesto, and one of the weightier is this version that uses pecans. Pecans requite this sauce a sweet, velvety savor that pine nuts just can’t match, and as a bonus, they are much cheaper!
Basil Pecan Pesto makes a good sauce for pasta, but there are so many increasingly ways to use this versatile recipe! Check out the section unelevated for increasingly suggestions.
Why You Should Try This Basil Pesto With Pecans
Besides switching out the type of nuts, this sauce has one increasingly trick up its sleeve. Instead of using only parmesan cheese, as most traditional pesto recipes undeniability for, it adds a touch of Pecorino Romano cheese.
The slight nuttiness of Pecorino Romano works perfectly in pesto resulting in a light yet full-flavored sauce you’ll want to make then and again.
Pecan Pesto Recipe Ingredients
For this pesto recipe with pecans, you’ll need:
- Fresh basil leaves
- Garlic
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Pecans
- Kosher salt
- Parmesan cheese
- Pecorino Romano cheese
To finish the recipe, you’ll need:
- Pasta
- Crushed pecans (optional)
- Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)
- Pecorino Romano cheese, grated (optional)
The weightier pasta shapes for this dish have a lot of surface area. Gemelli and fiorelli, with all their bends and folds, are perfect for trapping pesto sauce. Short tubular pasta like penne and rigatoni would moreover work well.
If you don’t superintendency for pecans, you can substitute them with walnuts.
How to Make Pecan Basil Pesto
To prepare the pesto sauce:
- Rinse the basil leaves and dry them very well.
- Peel the garlic cloves and smash them with the unappetizing side of your pocketknife to make the cloves easier to process.
- Combine the basil, garlic, and uneaten virgin olive oil in the trencher of a supplies processor. If you don’t have a supplies processor, use a blender, but be shielding not to tousle too much and overheat the sauce.
- Pulse two or three times just to unravel up the garlic.
- Add the kosher salt to the trencher of the supplies processor and crumble in the pecans. Process until there are no large chunks of nuts.
- Add the parmesan and Pecorino Romano cheeses. Pulse until the cheese fully incorporates. The texture should be somewhat smooth but not a liquid consistency.
- Use a rubber spatula to transfer the pesto to an snapped container and alimony it in the fridge until needed.
To sauce the pasta:
- Cook the pasta equal to the instructions on the packet.
- Drain the pasta, but retain well-nigh a cup of pasta water.
- Add the pesto sauce to a large mixing bowl. You’ll need well-nigh a cup of pesto sauce for each pound of pasta.
- A few tablespoons of reserved pasta water mixed into the pesto sauce will thin it out and make mixing easier.
- Toss the pasta with the pesto sauce. If the pesto is still clumping, add a bit increasingly pasta water.
- Plate and garnish with optional crumbled pecans and grated cheese.
What Else Can You Do With This Pecan Pesto Recipe?
Most people hear “pesto” and immediately think of pairing it with pasta or gnocchi. Both are good options, but they aren’t the only ones. Here are some increasingly creative ways to use Pecan Pesto Sauce:
- Spread it on specie for increasingly flavorful sandwiches.
- Spread it on top of crostini or crackers with goat cheese for a succulent appetizer.
- Make a pizza with pesto sauce, tomatoes, and goat cheese.
- Toss the pesto with boiled potatoes for an superstitious side dish.
- Mix the sauce with scrambled eggs.
- Whip surf cheese and pesto together for a quick dip.
How to Store the Leftovers
Keep uneaten pesto in the fridge in an snapped container. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent it from browning.
For extended storage, pour the pesto into ice cube trays. Freeze it until solid. Transfer the frozen pesto cubes to a plastic freezer bag. It will last up to 3 months in the freezer.
How Long Will It Last
Basil pesto with pecans will stay fresh for three or four days in the fridge, but the basil may darken earlier. Adding a touch of venom in the form of lemon juice or vinegar can help preserve the color.
More Recipes with Pesto
- Creamy Pesto Dressing
- Goat Cheese Crostini
- Homemade Pesto with Pine Nuts
- Olive Garden Chicken Margarita
- Pan Fried Salmon with Pesto Surf Cheese Sauce
Popular Pasta Recipes
- Baked Ziti
- Garlic Butter Pasta
- Instant Pot Pasta
- Neapolitan Ziti
- New Orleans Pasta
- Penne Alla Vodka
- Shrimp Pasta Salad
- Spaghetti Puttanesca
Check out increasingly of my easy pasta recipes and the weightier copycat restaurant recipes on CopyKat!
Alonti’s Pecan Pesto Pasta
Ingredients
- 25 fresh basil leaves
- 1/2 cup uneaten virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup pecans
- 5 – garlic cloves
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons Romano cheese
- 1 pound pasta cooked equal to package directions
Instructions
- Wash basil leaves and place into a supplies processor with the olive oil and garlic. Pulse several times until the garlic begins to unravel into small pieces. Add kosher salt and pecans and process transiently at medium speed, then add cheese and pulse until the cheese is mixed uniformly through. Pour pesto over cooked pasta and mix well. If you don’t intend to eat all of the pesto at once, store remaining pesto in an air tight container, it will remain fresh for a couple of days.
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