Yummy! I love green beans… Salads, casserole, stewed green beans with different kinds of toasted nuts…  But this pesto is my favorite recipe with green beans!

Classic Italian Pesto is made with basil and pine nuts and it the most known pesto today, but I love experimenting, so I use all kinds of vegetables, nuts and seeds to make some creamy pesto at home. As I said before this is my favorite one, but I will post other delicious pesto recipes so you can give it a look, like kale, zucchini and baby spinach pesto (this one is super, mega delicious) 🙂 Stay tuned!

Kitchen tool you will need for this recipe is a food processor, I don’t recommend you a blender because a blender is designed for liquids like smoothies, cocktails and soups, with food processor your pesto will have the right consistency. I’m saying this because I have tried doing the pesto with a blender and then with a food processor, it is much easier, less complicated and faster way for making a good pesto. If you haven’t tried already, make the pesto with a mortar and pestle you can’t go wrong! A little patience and voila! Yet, basil pesto is more creamy, I made this green beans pesto less creamy by putting less oil and more green beans and not processing it for too long, but you can make it more creamy, as you like, it will taste great either way. 🙂

Not to mention that as in other recipes, the quality of the ingredients is one of the most important things. Use a good quality extra-virgin olive oil with a buttery and spicy peppery taste, buy fresh green beans, possibly organic ones, I prepare this recipe only during the green beans season and then put it in jars and freeze it. Frozen jars of pesto are good for 6 – 9 months. So if I’m in a hurry or my husband is home alone (he doesn’t cook at all), these delicious pesto recipes are ready to use.

If you don’t like hazelnuts, you can prepare it with toasted pine nuts or almonds. For removing the skin of hazelnuts, I put them in a pan of boiling water for 5 minutes and peel them easily (roasting method is not my favourite one). I put only one garlic clove because I’m not a fan of garlic, it enhances the taste of numerous dishes, but I have a stomach ache after eating it, so sometimes I toast it in a non-stick pan or in the oven, so it will have far less pungency.

Any type of pasta goes well with this pesto, but I prefer Rigatoni and Spaghetti N°5.

Around the internet, you will find numerous recipes, but I think the best thing about trying to make a recipe is to give a little personal touch and adjust it as you prefer. So share with your green beans pesto photos and tips on how you personalized it? 🙂

Buon Appetito!