I am all about recipes that deliver maximum flavor with minimum effort. Enter sun dried tomato pesto. A few easy to find ingredients, a few minutes in the food processor and you’ve got a tasty and highly versatile sauce that’s far more than the sum of it’s parts. Once you discover how easy it is to make sun dried tomato pesto at home you’re bound to always have some on hand.
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What is Pesto Rosso?
Pesto Rosso, also known as pesto alla siciliana or pesto alla trapanese, is a Sicialian version of pesto from the province of Trapani. Traditional basil pesto (genovese pesto) is made with basil, pine nuts, Parmesan, garlic, olive oil, and salt. Pesto Rosso uses sun dried tomatoes in addition to the traditional pesto ingredients, usually with less basil as well.
Pesto Variations
Pesto is highly customizable to suite your taste. You can omit the cheese to make a vegan sun dried tomato pesto that’s just as delicious. Swap out the pine nuts for almonds or walnuts, or use spinach or arugula in place of the basil.
How to Use Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
Not only is sun dried tomato pest delicious and easy to make, it’s also quite versatile!
- Use it in a sauce for pasta
- add it to your morning eggs
- use it as part of a cheese or charcuterie board
- spread it on artisan bread
- stuff chicken breasts with sun dried tomato and goat cheese
- drizzle onto grilled steaks or shrimp
- use as a gourmet pizza sauce
Ingredients for Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
- Sun dried tomatoes packed in oil
- Basil
- Parmesan cheese
- Pine nuts
- Garlic
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Olive oil
How to Make Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
Sun dried tomato pesto is far more delicious than it deserves to be for how little effort you put in making it. First you’ll need (obviously) sun dried tomatoes. At the store you’ll find packages of dried sun dried tomatoes and ones in a jar packed in oil. Go for the jar of sun dried tomatoes packed in oil for this recipe. In a food processor add the sun dried tomatoes along with parmesan, pine nuts, basil, garlic, salt and pepper. Turn your food processor on and stream in the olive oil while the machine is running and blend until the pesto has emulsified and come together. After that you can serve it right away or store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
If you like this Sun Dried Tomato Pesto be sure to take a look at some of my other recipes!
Creamy Pasta with Asparagus and Mushrooms
Zucchini Puff Pastry Tart with Pesto Ricotta
If you make this Sun Dried Tomato Pesto please be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest for my latest recipes. Also, if you do make this recipe please tag me on Instagram, I’d love to see what you guys are making!
Sun Dried Tomato Pesto (Pesto Rosso)
Equipment
- Food processor
Ingredients
- 1 8.5 oz jar sun dried tomatoes packed in oil
- 1 cup basil leaves
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup olive oil
Instructions
- Place sun dried tomatoes, basil, parmesan, pine nuts, garlic, salt and pepper in a food processor.
- While the food processor is running stream in the olive oil until everything is blended and emulsified.
- Serve as desired or store refrigerated in air tight container.
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Giangi Townsend says
What a fantastic idea! Love pesto and I so happen to have all the ingredients to make this recipe. Cannot wait!
Kayla DiMaggio says
Love this pesto! The sundried tomato flavor is so delicious! Such a quick and easy meal to make with noodles!
Shilpa says
Looks delicious and so easy to make. Thanks for sharing
Gwynn Galvin says
I love this flavor twist on the traditional pesto!
Jenny says
I’m obsessed with this sauce. I’ve made a batch and have used it for pasta, on bread, and I took your idea to put it on my eggs! It’s so good, thanks for the recipe!
Gloria says
Homemade pesto is so delicious. The perfect topping for pasta. This would make a great good gift too.
Anna says
I made some pasta and added this pesto to it, and it was utterly delicious! Sundried tomatoes have so much depth of flavour, and this pesto reflects it beautifully!
Linda says
Oh, I love your suggestion to put this on pizza! I’ll just have to update the grocery list right now…yum!
Luca says
I could not believe it is so fast and easy to make. I made the Genovese pesto some days ago, but now can’t wait to try this!
Jean says
been wanting to try sun-dried pesto, glad to see your recipe.
Allyssa says
This is amazing! Thank you so much for this very flavorful and really easy to make recipe! Highly recommended!
Eliza Cross says
Heavenly! I love sun-dried tomatoes and this recipe really makes the most of their rich flavor. Another winner from Casual Foodist!
Natalie says
I always buy sun-dried pesto in the store. But look how easy this is to make at home! I’m surprised. Now I can’t wait to make this. Looks delicious.
Linda says
In love with this pesto recipe and so good with pasta. Plus, it makes good weeknight dinners
Emily Flint says
I can’t wait to make this tomato pesto with the sundried tomatoes from my garden. I’ve been looking for a recipe to use them up. Delicious!
Julia says
Absolutely loved this recipe. The pesto was so full of flavour that whatever else I use it for will be amazing. I’ve just tried it swirled through pasta so far but there are a lot of good ways to use this. Really loved it thank you.
Michael DiMaggio says
This pesto was delicious! So good to eat on pasta, I can’t get enough of this!
Andy says
Hi
Am about to make to go with roasted tomato soup. Are you able to give measurements in grams? Thanks
Brianna says
sun-dried tomatoes- 240 grams
basil – 20 grams
parmesan cheese – 45 grams
pine nuts – 35 grams
3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper 1.5 grams of each
olive oil – 118 ml
Debbie says
How long will this keep in the fridge…..Looks delicious, can’t wait to try it.
Brianna says
7-10 days in the fridge or up to 3 months in the freezer
JANET M says
Delicious 😊 I made it Vegan by substituting the Parmesan with Nutritional yeast – it was great. We served it stirred in to Pasta and added black olives on top as a little Italian extra. Will definitely make again – super quick to make.
We also made it with ground Almonds and Cashews when we did not have any pine nuts – equally great !
Thank you very much for this recipe.
Noah Kadner says
I had no pine nuts so I used walnuts instead. It turned out amazing!
Brianna says
walnuts sound like a great addition!
EvaK says
Very excited to try this recipe. How long can this be stored in the fridge? Can it be frozen?
JG says
Hi, this sounds amazing! It might be a silly question, but when you add the sundried tomatoes to the food processor, are you supposed to separate it from the oil it comes in or dump the whole jar in with the other ingredients?
Brianna says
Not a silly question at all! I would do the entire jar with oil unless there seems to be excess oil then you can strain some of it out. Let me know how it turns out 🙂
Jacqueline says
Love this pesto as I’ve stated before. But in regards to using the oil from the jar, I haven’t been able to find shop bought sun-dried tomatoes in a good oil, so I do separate though I would imagine the jar oil would add extra flavour
Great recipe thankyou
Kara says
Thank you for the great recipe—It’s super easy, super delicious, and a wonderful way to use up the prolific basil that grows in my AeroGarden. It’s really tasty on spaetzle!K
Syerra says
I really liked this recipe but felt it was a little too salty.
Jacqueline says
Made this today, only vegan with nutritional yeast, added a bit of lemon juice, but it was delicious just had it on sourdough bread with salad leaves for lunch, frozen the rest in little tubs.
Thank you
Donia says
Do you use the oil from the sun dried tomatoes as well as the olive oil?
Brianna Simmons says
yes, if the jar is packed with tomatoes and just enough oil to cover them. If there is a lot of oil in the jar you can decrease the amount of additional oil.