Recipe Roundup

37 Perfect Pesto Recipes

There are so many creative ways to make and use this verdant, versatile sauce. Here are our favorites.
Image may contain Plant Food Dish Meal Produce Vegetable Cutlery and Fork
Photo by Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott
  • Image may contain Plant Food Dish Meal Produce Vegetable Cutlery and Fork
    Photo by Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott
    1/37

    Fridge-Dive Pesto Pasta

    Use whatever you have—hearty greens like kale and collards, lettuces like watercress and arugula, and plenty of herbs—in this clean-out-the-fridge take on pasta pesto.

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  • Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Molly Baz
    2/37

    Three-Bean Soup

    A pesto of dill, lemon, and fennel fronds tops off this vegetable soup, adding a bright, fresh, flavorful finish.

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  • Photo by Stephen Kent Johnson, Prop Styling by Kalen Kaminski, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich
    3/37

    Spicy Lamb Meatballs with Raisin Pesto

    Loving meatballs has never been this rewarding. They're gilded with lots of strong spices and set in a cooling swoosh of yogurt and anointed with the sweet brightness of a mint pesto.

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  • Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Katherine Sacks
    4/37

    White Pizza With Shaved Vegetables and Pesto

    This so-good-you-won't-believe-it's-healthy pie is covered in pesto and cheese and topped with a veritable salad of peas, crisp asparagus ribbons, zucchini, leeks, and watercress.

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  • Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell
    7/37

    Culantro Pesto

    This pesto uses the versatile herb culantro, which tastes a little like a cross between parsley and cilantro.

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  • Photo by Gentl & Hyers
    8/37

    Pasta with Ramp Pesto and Guanciale

    Look for leafy ramp greens in the spring to make a pesto with oniony kick that turns rigatoni and cured pork into an unimaginably good (and easy) pasta dish.

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  • Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell
    9/37

    Spring Risotto

    A last-minute addition of basil pesto turns creamy risotto into the ultimate bowl of spring comfort.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau, Food Styling by Sue Li, Prop Styling by Elizabeth Jaime
    10/37

    Spring Minestrone Verde With Pistachio Pesto

    Make pesto extra green by subbing in pistachios for the traditional pine nuts and tossing in a bit of fresh, verdant parsley for good measure.

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  • José Picayo
    23/37

    Lamb Kebabs with Mint Pesto

    Ever feel like kebabs are just missing something? With a cooling mint pesto, those days are over.

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  • Photo by Hersheimer & Hamilton
    24/37

    Pasta with Garlic-Scape Pesto

    Garlic scapes are the soft, lime-green-colored stems and unopened flower buds of hard-neck garlic varieties. Its garlic flavor and slight sweetness makes it perfect as a pesto green.

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  • Gentl & Hyers
    33/37

    Pressed Coppa Sandwiches with Broccoli Rabe Pesto

    Swap the grocery store cold cuts for a special cured meat like coppa (a cured cut from the pork shoulder) in this epically flavored sandwich. Its sweet flavor tempers the spicy-bitter broccoli rabe pesto.

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  • Photo by Lisette Kreischer
    34/37

    Pesto From the Sea

    Kick pesto up an antioxidant or two with kombu—a type of seaweed—and spicy arugula. The basil, pine nuts, garlic, and olive oil are still there, but it's cheese free (since the kombu also provides the salty, umami flavor that Parmesan usually adds).

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