Photo: Arugula Pesto Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cups packed fresh arugula
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 cup pure olive oil
- 2 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted, plus 1 tablespoon
- 1/8 teaspoon vitamin C (optional)
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Directions
Prepare an ice water bath in a large bowl, and bring a large pot of water to a boil. Put the arugula in a large sieve and plunge it into the boiling water. Immediately immerse all the arugula and stir so that it blanches evenly. Blanch for about 15 seconds. Remove, shake off the excess water, then plunge the arugula into the ice water bath and stir again so it cools as fast as possible. Drain well.
Squeeze the water out of the arugula with your hands until very dry. Roughly chop the arugula and put in a blender. Add the garlic, salt and pepper to taste, olive oil, 2 tablespoons of the pine nuts, and the vitamin C, if using. Blend for at least 30 seconds. In this way the green of the arugula will thoroughly color the oil. Add the cheese and pulse to combine. The pesto will keep several days in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.
Pull out before dinner to get to room temperature. Before serving, add the remaining 1 tablespoon toasted pinenuts.
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By rlschrank
on September 19, 2012
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I definitely didn't follow the recipe exactly, but was pleased to find the idea to make pesto with my arugula!
By veravera1
Berkeley, CA
on April 16, 2012
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I changed the recipe around a little. First of all, I didn't blanch the arugula....just washed it well and spun it dry. I used some lemon zest and lemon juice instead of Vitamin C. I also used pine nuts but didn't toast them. I process it well in the food processor and then scooped the pesto into an ice cube tray and froze the cubes. When frozen, remove the cubes from the tray and wrap each cube individually in foil and then store in a plastic bag in the freezer. They stay fresh for months and easy to pull out a cube or two when needed in a recipe!!
By diane7NYC
on March 06, 2012
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I LOVE arugula so this recipe is a great find. I toasted up walnuts and used those instead of pine nuts, also lemon squeeze and zest instead of VitC. Did not blanch the arugula and still, it was perfect: bright green, stays so if tightly covered. Added oil amount to the consistency I like: more thin than thick. Taste for salt after adding the cheese.
Read all 17 reviews