
We haven’t been this excited about a dinner recipe in a long time.

Probably not since the 15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta, which Eric said – in between shoveling this pasta in his mouth – is “not as good as this roasted tomato pesto recipe”.
I didn’t believe it, but after tasting and then devouring my own bowl of pesto (ok, there was some pasta in there too), I may have to agree with him. This is by far, the best pesto I’ve made or perhaps ever tasted.

Don’t be put off by the colour, I promise it tastes much better than it looks. ;)
We enjoyed it so much, I made two batches over the long weekend and froze some for a later date. In January, there will be no tears over tasteless tomatoes as long as I have this pesto waiting for us!

If I can wait that long to eat it, that is.
Outlook not good.

[print_this]
Roasted Tomato Basil Pesto Pasta
This pesto is bursting with seasonal flavours and nutrients. Hello lycopene! It’s also quite low in oil thanks to the roasted tomatoes adding body and flavour. I left the almonds chopped and it added a nice texture that was great mixed into pasta or spread on a toasted sandwich. I suggest making some and freezing it for a later date.
Inspired by Gourmet.
Yield: 1 cup pesto
Ingredients:
- 9 large roma tomatoes, sliced in half lengthwise
- 1/2 cup almonds, toasted
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 cup tightly packed basil + more for garnish
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil + more for drizzling on tomatoes
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
- Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Your desired amount of cooked Pasta
1. Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Place sliced tomatoes on the sheet and drizzle with oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for about 1 hour and 10 mins at 400F. Watch closely during the last 15 minutes of roasting.
2. Reduce oven heat to 325F and toast almonds for 8-10 minutes. Add 1/3 cup into food processor and process until finely chopped. I left mine a bit chunky for texture. Remove and set aside.
3. With processor turned on, add 2 garlic cloves and let it whirl around until finely chopped. Now add in the basil and process until finely chopped.
4. Add in the oil, optional nutritional yeast, and 1.5 cups of roasted tomatoes (you will have tomatoes left over). Process until smooth. Pulse in 1/3 cup toasted almonds. Season generously with salt and pepper. I think I used about 1/2 tsp salt or a bit more.
5. Pour your desired amount of pesto over the cooked pasta and mix well. Chop the remaining roasted tomatoes and stir into pasta. Chop remaining almonds and Chiffonade the basil (see below).
[/print_this]

I decided to roast the tomatoes first to give the pesto a really deep flavour. So glad I did!!
First, I drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled them with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Into the pre-heated oven they went at 400F for about 1 hour and 10 minutes. The longer they roast, the more delicious they become. The bottoms will be blackened slightly, but not to worry as it only enhances the flavour.

After cooling slightly, I ate one straight off the pan. And I almost burned my mouth off, but it was so worth it. I’m surprised that the rest of them made it into the processor!

While the processor blade is spinning, add two garlic cloves. Let it whirl around until the garlic is chopped. Next, add 1 cup of tightly packed basil and process. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spoon. With the processor on, add in 1/4 cup oil, 1.5 cups of roasted tomatoes, nutritional yeast (optional), and salt and pepper to taste. Pulse in the toasted almonds.
I’m loving this olive oil right now:


This pesto is so delicious it’s unreal.
This was my first batch and I used 1 cup of roasted tomatoes, but I suggest using 1.5 cups of roasted tomatoes as I did in my second batch. You get more bang for your buck!

If you want to be a fancy pants, you can Chiffonade the basil for garnishing on top of the pasta. “Chiffon” is French for “rag” which is what the basil will look like when you’re finished.

How to Chiffonade basil:
1. Grab a few basil leaves (you can use spinach or any leafy vegetable for future reference)

2. Stack them on top of one another like so.

3. Now roll it up all the way.

4. Grab a sharp knife and slice tiny 1mm cuts through the rolled up basil.

Do not slice finger off as it looks like I’m about to do in the above photo. That would not be good.
Repeat until you’ve sliced through all of it. The basil, not your finger.

5. With your (in tact) fingers, gently separate the basil into its ‘rag-like’ pieces and sprinkle over top of your dish.

And if you handle them as long as I did to get these photos, they will really look like rags!
You are now a fancy pants.

It is your mission to go on and enjoy those deliciously sweet tomatoes that are waiting for you.
Just don’t forget to freeze some for the Winter!
Looks fantastic :) A pesto fanatic here :) Although recently I’ve been crazy about using roasted veggies hummus as my pasta sauce/cream :)
mmm that sounds right up my alley!
Oh my, this is gorgeous!! Sadly my basil plant has come to the end of its life… I haven’t watered it more or less or anything, but it just seems to have called it quits! So as soon as I get to the grocery store to buy some new basil, this will be coming out of my kitchen! :)
How weird – I had taken a photo of a roasted tomato sauce recipe at the gym the other day (it was in a mag I was reading) and ended up with a bunch of tomatoes to make it. But now I am thinking of making this instead!
Rather obvious question – can you use something other than Roma tomatoes? I have a mix in my fridge at the moment.
Angela, you would seriously cry with happiness if you saw one of the stands at our local farmers market. They seriously have about 16 different varieties of tomatoes (last night we had Thai Pink Egg toms in our salad) and it’s like some kind of tomato festival!
Wow that sounds beautiful! I’d be all over that.
I’d imagine you can use most types of sweet tomatoes :)
Oh wow, it looks delicious! I love the first image of the roasted tomato. Man, you’re so talented with that darn camera! Do you still shoot with your 50mm? Or have you moved on?
Also, have to tell you – last night I was taking a picture of my salad and the lighting was bad so I tried the ‘quick run over to the side with the reflector sheet trick’… and dropped the sheet IN my salad :( humpf.
haha that’s happened to me before. I actually have a couple stains on my reflector sheet. Gross eh?
Yup still using the 50mm, although last night I had a dream that I bought a $2000 lens! lol
I’m so happy it’s not just me! Not gross at all. Give it a couple of months and I’m sure mine will be in the same condition.
I just started shooting with a 17-85mm along with my 50mm. Although it’s nice to get some range, I keep going back to my 50mm. It’s just such a darn good lens!
Could you imagine getting a $2k lens? I wouldn’t know what to do with it?! First up – get some stains on that baby! jk jk
Oh this looks incredible! I am in love with pesto. Can’t wait to try this!!
Oh my…so yum. That first photo had me majorly drooling. I recently made my foray into pesto 2 years ago and I’m obsessed. I like to add all sorts of things like sun dried tomatoes, walnuts, spicy peppers, etc.
Another amazing recipe! Thanks for the great idea :)
Awesome pictures too, by the way.
Mmm…it looks so hearty and delicious! :-) And I’m assuming that those beautiful vegetables are from your garden?
The romas are from the market, sadly I didnt grow any romas this year!
I am drooling just looking at the pictures of this pasta! I love roasted tomatoes with basil! Perfect recipe!
OMG! I wish I would’ve had this recipe on Sunday when I needed to use up those roma tomatoes on my counter (I ended up making fresh pico de gallo instead)! I’ll be heading to the store tonight for more tomatoes to make this! Yum!
What a great looking dish! I am always looking for healthy pasta recipes and this is definitely going to make its way into the rotation.
Those roasted tomatoes are so beautiful, I almost hate to see them go into the food processor! :-)
Yum, I’ve heard of sundried tomato pesto but not roasted tomato!!
How did you freeze this? How long does it keep? Thanks!
I just put it in a glass (freezer safe) small container and then covered the pesto with a bit of plastic wrap to keep away freezer burn. Then put the lid on and popped it into the freezer. Im sure there’s a better way to freeze it, but that’s how I do it. I’m not positive how long it keeps in the freezer, but I’m sure it’s easy to find out!
Love roasted tomatoes! Great idea turning them into pesto! yum!
Yum! I love pesto…this recipe looks amazing. I’m bookmarking it right now!
That looks amazing! I always try to have Extra pesto in the freeze… Now I want this one in there. I’m excited about this meal too!
This looks delicious!! Can’t wait to try it!
This looks amazing!! My mom grew an absurd amount of tomatoes this season and now we have about 50 jars of sauce ready for tomato soup, pizza sauce, and much more. Any good ‘mater soup recipes, it’s one of the main things I crave during our PA winters! Thanks!
This looks amazing! True story: I had a professional chef helping me prep a cooking demo a few weeks ago and I asked him to “jullienne” the mint. He gave me kind of a haughty look and said, “I think you mean chiffonade.” I felt like a complete moron. ;)
LOL! That just made my day. I say things like that all the time. Don’t you wish you had a mental Google reference? lol.