Pistachio Pesto Recipe

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I had a little time to kill today, so I decided to fine tune my Pistachio Pesto recipe.  Years ago a customer came into our store and placed a catering order.  It was a fairly big job and one item she insisted upon was Pistachio Pesto Crusted Salmon Fillets, which did not appear on the menu.

We didn’t want to loose the job and figured, how hard could a Pistachio Pesto be?  We were already selling four varieties of fresh pesto, we could certainly pull this one off.  Our chef Eric went to work, made a few test runs, sampled it as a lunch special one Friday and we ended up with a very happy client.

Problem was, I never felt comfortable with the final product.  Yeah, we learned a few things alone the way, like using Sicilian (very hard to find) Pistachios and cutting back on the basil, but I still felt it could have turned out better.

So today, with a fresh batch of shelled Turkish pistachios (couldn’t find the Sicilian, but these were right up there) I felt I hit a home run.  Below is the Pesto recipe as well as the Crusted Salmon dish.  Hope you enjoy!

Pistachio Pesto Ingredients: (use a food processor)

  • 1 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 1 cup (or less) fresh parsley
  • 1 1/2 cup shelled pistachios
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
  • 1/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
  • 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
  • salt and pepper to taste

Pulse the pistachios and garlic in the food processor until finely chopped.  Add the basil, parsley, cheese, breadcrumbs, lemon zest, salt and pepper.  Start the processor and slowly add the olive oil until you come up with a fairly dark green paste.  Check for seasonings.

Pistachio Pesto Crusted Salmon:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place the salmon on a baking sheet, skin side down.  Be sure to add a little olive oil and breadcrumbs to the bottom of the baking sheet.  Season the salmon with salt, pepper and lemon juice.  Spread a layer of the Pistachio Pesto over each piece of salmon, and a dash of olive oil as well.

Cook for 10 to 12 minutes or until the salmon is orange in color, and the pesto topping has browned.  Enjoy with some steamed broccoli, and you will be as happy as our first Pistachio Pesto customer was years ago.

 

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