250g warrigal greens, leaves picked, reserve baby leaves for garnish
1 large handful sea parsley leaves and stalks, roughly chopped, reserve a few leaves for garnish
juice of 3 lemons
250ml (1 cup) extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to cover
200g macadamias
approx 30 desert limes, plus a few halved limes for garnish
4 cloves garlic, peeled
salt flakes and cracked black pepper
60g (3/4 cup) grated parmesan
Yield: approx 750g of pesto
- Blanch the warrigal greens in a large saucepan of boiling water for 1 minute, then rinse them in cold water. Drain well and squeeze out excess liquid.
- Roughly chop the blanched grees and the sea parsley and place them in a food processor with the lemon juice and a little olive oil. Blend until the greens are roughly pureed. Add the macadamias, limes and garlic and continue to blend until the mixture looks like crunchy peanut butter.
- Continue blending slowly while drizzling in the remaining olive oil until you have a coarse pesto, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the parmesan and pulse to blend through, then check the seasoning.
- Transfer the pesto to sterilised jars. Let settle to remove air bubbles, cover with olive oil and refrigerate up to 3 months.
(recipe courtesy of Simon Bryant in John Newton’s, The Oldest Foods on Earth, 2016, pp. 76-78)