I don’t know how these things happen but I can start off a day feeling fairly normal and with a “to do” list of things of thing I want to take care of, and then remember that a few weeks ago someone mentioned pistachio pesto on Twitter and then I’m suddenly lost down a google pesto rabbit-hole. This is followed by an immediate desire – nay, OBSESSION –  to make this dish NOW (last time this happened I think it was lamb faggots). Anyhow, after a quick trip to the supermarket to get some pistachios and basil I was in business.

It was also a chance to use my lovely marble mortar and get a bit of a work out at the same time. Previous times making normal pine nut pesto I’ve used a small blender and the result was fine, but I wanted to see if using this traditional method made a difference. And so between shopping, preparing, photographing, cooking pasta (and turning some leftover risotto into arancini), instagramming the process, and FINALLY eating (lunch ended up being around 7 pm) that was pretty much my day.

I used my friend Anna’s pesto recipe as a base, and looked at a few others that used pistachios instead of pine nuts, and the result was pretty damn tasty. I will eventually get it up on Azahar’s Kitchen. Until then you can enjoy my pretty pictures. What did you do today?  🙂

Update! Pistachio Pesto is now on Azahar’s Kitchen.