Pesto is basically a sauce made with garlic, basil and nuts blended with cheese and olive oil. For some reason I had always thought that pesto can only be made with basil and pine nuts. So I purchased pine  nuts and was waiting to get my hands on basil, which was when I saw spinach pesto in few blogs. I also found out that walnuts can be used instead of pine nuts *sigh* wish I had known it earlier as both spinach and walnuts are always at home. Anyway the pesto was made and the pine nuts added a lot of creaminess to the pesto. We used it over pasta and also used it instead of cheese for sandwich. This recipe is from the cover of pine nuts and I replaced basil with spinach. I also added some green chillies for that extra punch which Indians love Off to ‘how pesto is made’.

Spinach Pesto

By Vardhini, July 15, 2011

Pesto with spinach and pine nuts.

• Total Time: 7 minutes
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook time: 2 minutes
• Yield: 3/4 cup

Ingredients:

• spinach - 2 cups - fresh (packed)
• pine nuts - 1/2 cup - roasted
• green chilly - 2
• garlic - 4 cloves
• parmesan cheese - 1/2 cup - grated
• olive oil - 2 - 3 tbsp
• salt - to taste

Instructions:

Dry roast the pine nuts and blend with other ingredients.

Toss with cooked pasta.

Pictorial
Dry roast the pine nuts.

Take the pine nuts in a  blender.

Add spinach, green chillies, garlic, parmesan, olive oil and salt to the pine nuts and make a paste.

I added 2 tbsp olive oil initially but the blender blades did not move at all. So had to add another tbsp of olive oil.

Spinach Pesto ready. How simple was that and I was postponing this for months .. huh. We had it over penne pasta for dinner. The pesto was rich and creamy and added a lot of flavor to the pasta.

I also sauteed some vegetables and added to the pasta.

Enjoy!

The first picture was uploaded on 5/1/2013.

Tips
1. Pesto freezes well.
2. Use walnuts instead of pine nuts
3. Use basil instead of spinach.