Do you have a jar of green olives in your fridge that you want to turn into dinner? Let’s do it!
If you are someone who doesn’t like to mess around with authentic recipes, look away now because this is definitely not anyone’s Italian Nonna’s pesto. Now, I love and respect authentic pesto (and have already attempted to create my own perfect basil pesto) but I also like to have fun with flavor twists and that is where we are at today.
The idea is this: we blend green olives into homemade pesto, leaving it a little extra rich, and extra textured and substantial from all the bulk of the olives (similar to my Broad Bean (Fava Bean) Pesto). It’s still green so it looks fairly legit, but the little Mediterranean flavor twist takes you by surprise a little. In a good way!
Ingredients: What’s Important, What You Can Swap
- Green olives are the headliner here! Feel free to use pimento stuffed olives for a fun twist, but I wouldn’t want to use expensive or fancy olives for this one – it would be a bit of a waste since the flavor is blended in with so many others.
- Pistachios could be swapped for pine nuts or almonds but I do love their rich flavor and how they add another dimension to the color green in this pesto.
- I am using basil on its own, but using some basil + some parsley works well too.
- Pecorino, parmesan or any Italian hard cheese will do fine here. Vegetarians, watch out for animal rennet with the DOP Italian cheeses (I use Tesco pecorino which is vegetarian friendly).
- To make this recipe vegan, feel free to just leave out the cheese. The olives add a lot of saltiness, so the cheese isn’t so critical for depth of flavor.
Make a meal of it…
You can enjoy this just as it is, maybe with some extra cheese on top, but to bulk it out to a more varied meal, I have some ideas:
- If the season is right, one of the easiest and tastiest toppings is chopped cherry tomatoes, as pictured.
- A big sheet pan of roasted peppers, tomatoes and/or zucchini would be fantastic.
- Feta cheese or fried halloumi will go well with the Mediterranean vibes of this pesto.
- Laziest option? Check out those little pots of mezze bites at the supermarket (mini stuffed peppers? manchego bites? sundried tomatoes? marinated mozzarella?) and just add those to the table for everyone to use as toppings.
Green Olive Pesto Pasta
Ingredients
- ½ cup (70 g) pitted whole green olives
- ⅓ cup (40 g) pistachios, toasted
- ⅓ cup (35 g) pecorino cheese , grated
- 2 cloves garlic
- Juice of 1 small lemon
- 2 cups (50 g) fresh basil leaves
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 10 oz (280 g) spaghetti, or any other pasta shape you wish
Instructions
- First, we will toast the pistachios. Heat a cast iron or stainless steel pan (no oil – keep the pan dry) over a low-medium heat and add the pistachios to the pan. Toast until they are fragrant and starting to brown – you will want to mix them up a couple of times during this process.
- Set your spaghetti boiling according to package instructions.
- Meanwhile, you can blend prep the pesto. Add the pistachios and all other ingredients except the olive oil into a small food processor. Pulse until the ingredients are finely chopped, then add the olive oil slowly while blending until you get the consistency you like (for me, that's fairly chunky but you can make it smoother if you wish).
- Once the pasta is cooked al dente, reserve a cup full of the pasta water and drain. Add the pasta and the pesto to a mixing bowl and use tongs to mix it together. Use splashes of pasta cooking water as needed to loosen it up and help the pesto stick to the pasta.
- Scoop onto plates and serve.
