sun dried tomato pesto with toasted almonds and italian parsley

when i think of pesto, the first thing that comes to mind is traditional basil pesto.  my mom makes amazing pesto with fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, and parmesan cheese.  it's so good, and i could spread it on just about anything.  basil pesto is a classic and i absolutely love it.  however, from time to time, i like to change things up a bit and put a new twist on some of my favorite classic recipes.

this week we made a different type of pesto.  it still had garlic and olive oil in it, but we replaced the basil, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese with sun dried tomatoes, toasted almonds, and italian parsley.

the sun dried tomatoes were a great base for this pesto.  the toasted almonds gave the pesto a deep rich flavor that perfectly complimented the bright flavor of the italian parsley.  we decided to put our pesto on veggie pasta and grilled chicken.  it was super yummy, and it was a nice change from traditional marinara sauce.  you could spread this pesto on just about anything.  (i bet it would be great on a piece of toasted italian bread too!)

sun dried tomato pesto with toasted almonds and italian parsley
prep time: 5-10 minutes
yields: approximately 2 cups of pesto
adapted from the daily muse

ingredients:
7 oz. sun dried tomato halves
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2 large handfuls of fresh italian parsley
4 garlic cloves
5-6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

directions:
in a small pan, over medium heat, toast the almonds until they become fragrant and brown (about 5 minutes).  remove the parsley leaves from the stems, and roughly chop the parsley leaves.  in a food processor, mix the tomatoes, almonds, parsley, garlic, and olive oil until smooth.  add more olive oil as needed to reach desired consistency.  season with salt and pepper to taste.

enjoy!

love, laurie