Sun Dried Tomato Basil Pesto is a delicious, nut-free pesto recipe that is super easy to make! It makes a wonderful pasta sauce, dip or spread for sandwiches!
We go through a ton of pesto in our house. Basil grows like crazy in our garden, so the kids and I make a new batch every few weeks to eat or give to friends. There are all different kinds of pestos you can make which is awesome. We have lots of fun experimenting and making all different kinds. Several weeks ago, I bought a jar of sun dried tomatoes at Trader Joe’s and thought they would be delicious pureed into a pesto. Turns out I was right because this Sun Dried Tomato Basil Pesto is lights out!
Ingredients for Sun Dried Tomato Basil Pesto
This recipe stays pretty close to a traditional pesto recipe but swaps out pine nuts for sun dried tomatoes to create a brightly red colored pesto that is full of flavor. Here’s what you need to make it!
- sun dried tomatoes
- fresh basil
- garlic
- grated parmesan cheese
- kosher salt
Sun Dried Tomato Basil Pesto is a Great Edible Gift!
There are some classic things that just go together. Sundays and football. Chocolate and peanut butter. For me, it’s food and the holidays. I love being able to make recipes to give as gifts to friends, teachers or even postal carriers. This is one of my favorite edible gifts give! The rich red, white and green colors of this pesto couldn’t make it more perfectly festive for Christmas.
- Multiply the recipe and make a big batch. It’s ridiculously easy to do!
- Fill mason jars (you can get them at craft stores, most groceries or even Amazon) with the pesto. Attach your own labels with the recipe written on them so your friends can remake it if they like it. I promise they will!
- Place the jars in a festive bag or basket with a box of nice pasta and that’s it! Now you’ve created a super easy, and affordable holiday gift that anyone would love to receive!
More Easy Homemade Pesto Recipes
As I said before, making different kinds of pesto can become a fun game! There’s no wrong way to make pesto. Use your favorites herbs, nuts and seeds or try a variety of olive oils to switch things up. Here are some more pesto recipes to get you started!
Recipes That Use Pesto
If you have tons of pesto that you aren’t sure what to do with, try using it in these recipes!
- Chicken Pesto Pasta
- Egg Pesto Melt
- Halibut Pesto Kabobs
- Chicken Pesto Wraps
- Two Cheese Pesto Pizza
- Pesto Pasta with Roast Chicken and Cherry Tomatoes
How to Freeze Pesto
Homemade pesto will stay fresh in your refrigerator for about a week. Sometimes we go overboard and make too much pesto, or we bought some at the grocery store we didn’t have time to get to before the week is up. Whoops! No worries though. You can freeze pesto to have available whenever you need! Here’s how to freeze pesto.
- Spoon the pesto into an ice cube tray. I like to use flexible silicone ones so that it’s super easy to get the pesto cubes out of the tray, but any ice cube tray you have will work!
- Freeze for a few hours until solid. Remove the frozen pesto cubes from the tray and add them to a large plastic food storage bag.
- Label with the date and contents and freeze for up to 6 months.
- When ready, defrost in fridge for 24 hours or toss in with your hot pasta until it defrosts. Enjoy!
Make this recipe anytime of the year to enjoy! It’s flavorful and versatile. Everyone will love it!
Sun Dried Tomato Basil Pesto
Ingredients
- 1 8.5 ounce jar sun dried tomatoes (oil from jar included)
- 1 cup basil, packed
- 1 small garlic clove
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Place sun dried tomatoes, basil, garlic, parmesan cheese and salt in a food processor and blend until smooth. If the pesto is too thick, add additional olive oil.
- Serve over pasta, or spread over crispy bread.
Notes
- Spoon the pesto into an ice cube tray. I like to use flexible silicone ones so that it’s super easy to get the pesto cubes out of the tray, but any ice cube tray you have will work!
- Freeze for a few hours until solid. Remove the frozen pesto cubes from the tray and add them to a large plastic food storage bag.
- Label with the date and contents and freeze for up to 6 months.
- When ready, defrost in fridge for 24 hours or toss in with your hot pasta until it defrosts. Enjoy!
Oh my goodness! I made this with toasted sunflower seeds instead of cheese because my son is allergic – it’s amazing!! I would eat it right out of the bowl. 🙂
We made this last night and my whole family loved it! Thanks for the recipe!
We love pesto, but recently discovered that my son is allergic to pine nuts. I can’t wait to try this recipe! We have lots of frozen chopped basil, so I’m going to give it a try. Hopefully we’ll all be able to enjoy pesto again! Thanks!