Credit for this idea goes to the wonderful heath coach and amazing cook Leslie Neri who posted some pictures of a similar dish on her Facebook page and made me need to make it!
We’ve been getting many grape tomatoes in our CSA share this year, and no one in my family, except me, is really big on uncooked tomatoes. So, they sit until I think of something to make with them. I was getting behind when a Facebook post sparked this idea to roast them up and make pesto. Happily for me, that week’s CSA share also contained fresh basil, and I already had garlic and nutritional yeast, so only a bag of pine nuts was needed. You can substitute almonds easily for the pine nuts if you don’t have them on hand!
Ingredients
3 pints grape tomatoes (other tomatoes will work, also)
1 bulb garlic
1 large bunch of basil
2 cups pine nuts (substitute with almonds if desired)
¼ cup olive oil
½ cup nutritional yeast flakes
Sea salt to taste
Process
Slice grape tomatoes lengthwise and arrange in a single layer on baking pans. Drizzle lightly with olive oil. Place garlic bulb on pan. Roast at 375* until they begin to brown at edges, stirring carefully every 10 minutes. Set aside.
Place pine nuts in food processor. Add tomatoes, garlic (peeled of course), basil (leaves only), nutritional yeast, and remaining olive oil. Pulse to a pesto texture. Add additional olive oil if needed.
Serve tossed with pasta, on a wrap with fresh veggies, etc. My children suggest that it is good enough to be eaten with a spoon directly from the blender.
Yummy.