Arugula pesto made with fresh arugula leaves, garlic, olive oil, walnuts, and Parmesan cheese.
Have an abundance of arugula? A great way to use it up is by making an arugula pesto.
By the way, gardeners out there, if you ever plant arugula, be warned, it grows like a weed! (Hence our need to make pesto.)
To make this pesto I used mature arugula from our garden (though you could use baby arugula too, it just isn’t as strong.)
I tried making it with both walnuts and pine nuts and strongly prefer this pesto with walnuts. The strong, meaty flavor of the walnuts balances out the astringency of the arugula, a good blend of flavors.
I’ve made pesto both with mortar and pestle and with a food processor. The food processor method is definitely easier but the mortar method produces larger pieces of the arugula.
I prefer a mild garlic flavor that you can achieve by using roasted garlic. The 1/2 raw garlic clove is added for a little kicker. The first time I made this pesto it was with only raw garlic and it was a little overwhelmingly garlicky. Using roasted garlic is a great way to still have the garlic flavor but without the intensity.
Source: Read Full Article