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| Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto |
Having made fresh basil pesto recently inspired me to make pesto out of what remains of my big jar of olive oil-soaked sun-dried tomatoes. "Red pesto," others call it, owing to the beautiful deep red hue of the sun-dried tomatoes with which it is made with. It is so easy to make, but the ease with which I was able to whip this up belies the utter deliciousness of this pesto. I learned that the very second that I licked clean the spatula that I used to scrape out the sides of the blender where I made my sun-dried tomato pesto. It tastes of summer, if that makes sense at all.
At first, I just wanted to use the sun-dried tomato pesto on my new pack of rigatoni. But my recipe yielded a lot, good for more than two-servings worth of pasta, so I got creative with the remaining pesto. It makes for such an elegant dip for melba toasts, for one. Combined with cream on the other hand, it results in a pasta sauce so sinful, you will forget about all the health benefits of sun-dried tomatoes.
Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto
Ingredients
1 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon dried basil
2 tablespoons walnuts
3 garlic cloves
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
Directions
Pulse together sun-dried tomatoes, chili powder, cheese, basil, walnuts and garlic in a blender until combined. With machine running, gradually add olive oil and blend until smooth paste forms.
Makes about 3 cups pesto.
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