Roasted Pepper Pesto
A take on pesto, using roasted sweet red peppers in place of the herbs.
Equipment
- Food processor.
Ingredients
- 1 lb red sweet peppers
- ¼ cup almonds
- 2 ounces aged grating cheese by weight. see note
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
Prepare the peppers
- Char all of the skin on the peppers. This is easiest to do on a very hot grill, but it can also be done directly over the burner of a gas cooktop or under a broiler.
- Move the peppers to an airtight container when they are charred. Let them sit until they are cool enough to handle.
- Rub charred skin off of the peppers and discard. Expect to see some dark discoloration under the skin. Also, if a little bit of charred skin remains on the peppers, that is fine. It will lend some more smokey nuances to the finished pesto.
- Slice the peppers in half and use the back of a knife to scrape the inside, removing the pith, seeds and stem core.
Use a food processor to make the pesto
- Either grate the cheese, or use a knife to dice into small pieces.
- Rough chop the garlic cloves.
- Place all of the ingredients in the food processor. Run the food processor until the pesto has achieved a pureed consistency.
Notes
I usually use a cheese called Calvander from the Chapel Hill Creamery, which is local to me. Calvander is made in the style of aged Asiago. A nice Parmesan or pecorino Romano would also work nicely.
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