Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

I feel like 90% of my posts start with “When I was little”….BUT there’s a reason for that. We eat what gives us comfort and we learn to cook from what we now. SO, when I was little, one of the meals I requested on repeat was “pesto pasta” aka rigatoni with Knorr’s pesto out of the packet. I lived for it. I’m not going to lie, I still buy a packet occasionally even thought I’m fully capable of making pesto from scratch with real ingredients. What can I say? I’m a nostalgic person.

Even though I still revert back to childhood habits occasionally, *most* of the time I’m making things from scratch. And this pesto was one of those random ideas I got at 9am on a Wednesday morning and needed to try immediately. And then it was perfect on the first try. Seriously though, I ate it on a breakfast bowl in the morning, on cauliflower gnocchi at night and then again the next morning on a breakfast sandwich. It’s the perfect summer pesto!

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

Prep time: 10 minutes | Cook time: 0 minutes | Total time: 10 minutes

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup basil, packed

• 1 oz roasted red peppers (about 1/2 large pepper)

• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

• 1/8 cup toasted pine nuts

• juice of 1 lemon

• 1-2 cloves of garlic

• 1/4 – 1/2 cup olive oil

• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients except for olive oil in a food processor until finely minced 

2. Pour in olive oil while food processor runs until desired consistency 

3. Serve immediately as a dip, spread, or on pasta or store in air-tight container for up to 1 week