Feta And Pistachio “Pesto” – Easy Peasy

This recipe combines some of my favourite things, and there is not so much fuss in making it! I saw it in a Turkish website, made some teeny meeny changes and voila!

All call this a type of “pesto” because it has basil, a type of nut and a type of cheese, together with some olive oil. Basil, as always, brings a refreshing taste, feta brings salt, pistachios add lots of flavour.

I made this spread with both toasted and not toasted pistachios. I must say that while both gave delicious results, the version with toasted pistachios was much much more flavoured. I always prefer toasting nuts and this is one of those recipes that benefit greatly from that.

Other than this, there is not much to say about this spread really. You must check how salty your feta is. Frankly, I did not need any extra salt thanks to feta, but this is one of those things that may be different for everyone. So, add more salt if you feel like it.

Eat this spread with a nice, crusty, fresh bread or add it, for example, to a salad! Enjoy!
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Ingredients:

Difficulty: Easy
(serves 4)

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

20 large basil leaves (you can add more leaves if your basil has small leaves)
6 tbsp olive oil
200 gr. feta*
90 gr. shelled, toasted (unsalted) pistachios
2 cloves of garlic, mashed
1/2 tsp black pepper

red pepper flakes and a little more olive oil for topping (optional)

*If you want to make this vegan, you can use vegan feta (sold in many big markets in Helsinki) or you can even make a slightly different vegan version with tofu. In both cases, especially if you use tofu, you will need to add salt to taste.

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1. In a food processor, put basil and half of olive oil and process for a while. It’s important not to process for long so that basil does not get burned, therefore I recommend processing for about 15 seconds, 3 times, stopping a few seconds in between. The idea is to get the basil in smaller pieces possible but doesn’t have to completely incorporate with olive oil.