In my travels, I often skip restaurants in favor of a more intimate option… picnics! I’ve written quite a bit about the limited offerings of Danish grocery stores, so it’s a treat to browse the aisles of a well stocked supermarket or delicatessen when I’m abroad.
One of my favorite places to do this is in Italy… pesto, bread, olives, cheese, marinated artichokes, grilled aubergine and peppers, red wine, it’s a vegetarian’s heaven! One evening overlooking Lake Como from my hotel balcony, as I greedily scooped pesto into my boca with crusty bread while professing my undying love for pesto and claiming I was never going to leave Italy… at least not to go back to Denmark, I promised myself to learn how to make fantastic pesto ;-)
This recipe makes delicious pesto while appealing to my frugal sensibilities. Pine nuts are notoriously expensive. In Denmark, they’ll bankrupt you, or at least make it so you can never afford to go back to Italy. So I make my pesto using almonds instead of pine nuts!
I was a bit skeptical at first. Then I tasted it and I thought it was delicious, so I shared some with an Italian colleague who gave it her stamp of approval. And with that endorsement, I’ll share my frugal pesto recipe with you…
1 large basil plant (approx. 40g of leaves)
1 large garlic clove
70g grana padano
30g almonds
1/2 – 3/4 cup olive oil
pinch of salt
Separate the basil leaves from the stems… as you can see in the first photo, you don’t have to be meticulous about it.
Cut the garlic and the cheese into small pieces and add it to a medium size bowl along with the basil leaves, almonds, 1/2 cup of oil, and a pinch of salt.
Blend together the ingredients with an immersion blender until the pesto is smooth. If it’s thicker than you’d like, blend in more oil a bit at a time until it’s your favorite consistency. If you think it needs it, you can add more salt, but the cheese is quite salty, so a pinch should do it.
For aesthetic reasons, you can blanch the almonds and remove the skins, but it doesn’t seem to affect the taste one way or the other.
I like this spread on crusty bread, as a star ingredient in caprese panini, on boiled potatoes, or as you see it here on grilled aubergine and halloumi sandwiches.
With this post, I’ll wish you a happy Thanksgiving! I’m cooking a Thanksgiving dinner on Friday and looking forward to spending time with my local “family.” I’ll see you here next week, or maybe on Facebook before then :)
WILDSIDE says
Yes, alternative nuts in pesto a great idea. I use hazelnuts and/or almonds — which I used to be able to grow myself! Not at the moment though. But even purchased, much less costly than pinenuts. YAY, you, YAY Robert!
Yam Rou says
Hi Sage, So, I was searching for a vegetarian dish for dinner tonight come across your amazing blog and instantly fell in love! I too am from Connecticut, still residing here unfortunately, and can relate to your life story, your desire to live life experiencing every breath, and love for vintage (and of course a love to not eat any living creature)!! Thank you for sharing so many veg friendly recipes (i have a lot of reading to do) and your inspiring and fear free take on life!!
~ Yam
Sage says
Hi Yam,
Welcome to my blog and thank you so much for your thoughtful note :)
I hope I was able to help you find something to make for dinner, and I hope I’ll hear from you again soon…