You may know that I've grown a fair bit of Italian parsley this year here at Struan Farm. I got a bit carried away growing seedlings in the glasshouse (oh really Karen?), and I pretty much saturated the market for the seedling plants at the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand earlier in the season. So into the ground and one of our raised veggie troughs it all went:
I've been using it all summer and taking jars of the freshly cut herb to the Piopio Community Stand as well. But now it's that time of the year where it might go to waste if I don't crank up my efforts. And thus: Walnut Parsley Pesto!
What's particularly good about this recipe is that in autumn our new crop of walnuts starts to drop, and it makes sense to use up whatever lovingly shelled walnuts are left in ziplock bags in the freezer from last year.
This recipe uses two cups of chopped parsley, one cup of walnuts, 1/2 cup of grated parmesan, two cloves of garlic, a pinch of salt and 1/2 cup of good extra virgin olive oil. I've used NZ grown and produced River Estate olive oil for many years now since buying it at the Clevedon Farmers Market and am a loyal customer.
This pesto is somewhat denser than the basil pesto I recently made. You can vary the consistency by adding more oil, that's entirely up to you. I'll wait to do that until I use it from the freezer later in the year, depending on what I'm using it for. This looks to be a good dip as is, also for spreading onto fish or chicken.
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