Walnut Pesto

Hi guys!

It's monday and I want to share another vegetarian recipe with you. As you know, I own Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook "Notes from my kitchen table" and I have been reading her "goop.com" blog for quite a while now. Last week, it featured an article on so-called "super foods" and I instantly loved the recipe for walnut pesto, so I decided to try it today. I made a few changes to it which I will elaborate on later. So here's the link: http://goop.com/journal/make/207/superfoods

I will add the recipe in metric here:
100g shelled walnuts
2 cloves garlic
1 piece (about 20g or 1 slice) day-old bread
120ml milk
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
25g grated parmesan
salt and pepper, to season

Here's how mine turned out:

As I said earlier, I mad a few small changes. I changed the whole milk for skimmed milk to have less fat. Secondly, I took only two tablespoons of olive oil and added 2 tablespoons of pasta water to thin instead. I did this for two reasons: number 1 is the same as before, to go easy on the fat as nuts contain a lot of (healthy) fat already and secondly, because I worried that the strong taste of olive oil, or too much of it, might cover the taste of the walnuts. The pesto turned out wonderfully. The walnuts add beautiful flavour to the pasta and it is a great alternative to the usual basil pesto, for example. 

Have fun trying!