I don’t know how these things happen but I can start off a day feeling fairly normal and with a “to do” list of things of thing I want to take care of, and then remember that a few weeks ago someone mentioned pistachio pesto on Twitter and then I’m suddenly lost down a google pesto rabbit-hole. This is followed by an immediate desire – nay, OBSESSION – to make this dish NOW (last time this happened I think it was lamb faggots). Anyhow, after a quick trip to the supermarket to get some pistachios and basil I was in business.

It was also a chance to use my lovely marble mortar and get a bit of a work out at the same time. Previous times making normal pine nut pesto I’ve used a small blender and the result was fine, but I wanted to see if using this traditional method made a difference. And you know what? I think it’s a close call but in future I am going to use the mortar & pestle because the individual flavours were more apparent. I used my friend Anna’s pesto recipe as a base, and looked at a few other recipes online that used pistachios instead of pine nuts, and the result was pretty damn tasty.

Update! Was out of pistachios today and fancied some pesto, used toasted almonds instead and the result was fabulous. Toasted cashews also work! FYI.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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