Tomato Leaf Pesto

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases linked in this post, at no charge to you. When you purchase items I've linked here, you help support my blog; thank you :)

Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free/Vegan

Skill Level: Beginner

Yield: About 1 cup pesto

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Equipment Needed:

• Cutting board

• Chef's knife

• Microplane zester

• Food processor

• Rubber or silicone spatula

The Recipe:

This recipe is adapted from the cookbook Simply Tomato, by Martha Holmberg

Ingredients:

• 2 cups lightly packed young, tender tomato leaves (see tips)

• 1 cup lightly packed basil

• 1/4 cup pine nuts

• 1-2 garlic cloves

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste

• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, or more as needed

• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (optional)

Procedure:

1. Use the flat side of your chef's knife to smash your garlic cloves and remove the peel. Add the smashed garlic cloves, tomato leaves, basil, pine nuts, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and lemon zest to your food processor. Pulse mixture several times, until ingredients look coarsely chopped.

2. With the food processor running, remove the plug to the feed tube and slowly stream in the olive oil (see photo in the story).

3. Once all of the oil has been added, stop your food processor and use a rubber or silicone scraper to scrape down the sides of the processor.

4. If you are adding the Parmigiano, add that now and pulse a few more times to blend everything together. Taste, and add more salt as you see fit. Continue to pulse until the pesto is a consistency that you like; if it seems too thick add more olive oil, 1-2 teaspoons at a time.

To Serve: As pictured, this pesto tastes great on pasta of any shape! We ate it with simply the penne pasta, but you could add your favorite protein or additional veggies to round out this meal as well. Our kids love pesto on cheese tortellini! I also love to use pesto as a spread for sandwiches; either mixed with a little mayo or on it's own. Pesto is also great mixed into a veggie dip, used in place of pizza sauce...a quick Google search will give you a million more ideas :)

Adjusting for your diet: As mentioned in the recipe, the Parmigiano is completely optional, so if you are on a vegan diet simply omit that ingredient. If you dislike the taste of basil, you could try subbing in different fresh herbs such as Italian flat-leaf parsley, cilantro, or mint.

Tips:

• The term "lightly packed," as it is used in this recipe, simply means to gently push the leaves down as you add them to the measuring cup, but do not feel the need to tightly push them into every nook and cranny.

• Be sure to choose only tender, moist tomato plant leaves for this recipe; stay away from the tired yellow leaves of a very mature tomato plant. Could you use only the tomato leaves and omit the cup of additional herbs...perhaps, but the tomato leaf flavor is quite strong, and their flavor is nicely balanced with the addition of another tender herb.

• Pine nuts are the traditional nut to include in pesto, but why not dare to be different and try a different nut, such as walnuts? Choose your own adventure!

• I did not toast the pine nuts when I made my pesto, but I've made pesto recipes in the past where I have toasted them and it does add a nice warmth to the flavor, so feel free to give them a quick toast if you desire. The easiest way to do this with a small amount of nuts is to add them to a dry skillet and heat on the stovetop over medium heat, stirring every couple minutes, until the nuts are fragrant. This should take around 5-8 minutes.

• The first time I made this pesto, I mixed the Parmigiano in by hand initially, since I think that is the more traditional way to make pesto. However, I was unhappy with the overly-coarse texture that method yielded, so I popped it back into the food processor for a smoother pesto. That said, I used a box grater to grate my Parm; perhaps if I would've used a microplane zester the shreds would have been fine enough to mix in by hand.

• Pesto freezes beautifully! I like to divide it into 1/4-cup portions and put them in quart-sized freezer bags. Then I lay them all flat on a cookie sheet and freeze. Once frozen, I transfer all the flattened bags to one container or gallon-sized freezer bag, and store in the freezer for up to 6 months. This way, I always have pesto at my fingertips, and it's a lovely way to preserve the season if you are making a big batch of your own pesto.

The Story:

Isn't this a fun one?! As you may or may not have noticed, I am often drawn to ingredients and recipes that are just a hair off the beaten path. New and different ideas really intrigue me when it comes to cooking, and this tomato leaf pesto recipe I ran across in a cookbook I borrowed from the library really fit the bill.

The tomato plants I plucked my leaves from.

I've never had great luck growing tomatoes; despite my best efforts they always end up with "root rot" at the bottom of the fruit, and the plants just seem sad. Before we were married, my husband grew a tomato plant in a pot on his deck that he claims he "barely took care of" and performed stupendously, so this summer he decided to try his hand at it again since he sensed my mounting frustration from my failed attempts the last few summers. He planted 3 seeds, and was also gifted 2 plants that were already started. He learned later that he should have planted the seeds much earlier in the season, so we weren't really sure what was going to happen, but it ended up being quite a happy mistake for me when I found this recipe since I needed the young, tender leaves that the late-bloomers were still producing instead of the tired, yellow-brown leaves that mostly adorned the other 2 plants on our deck.

Freshly cut! I removed the leaves from the fuzzy stems and discarded the stems.

If you've ever gone in and smelled a tomato plant as though it were a bouquet of roses (I have...), you know the fresh, slightly citrusy, intoxicating scent of the leaves. I was interested to read that up until somewhat recently, people believed tomato leaves were toxic. The reason is two-fold: the tomato plant is part of the Solanaceae family of plants, which actually does include some poisonous plants such as deadly nightshade, so that gave the tomato leaves a bit of a bad rap. The second reason is because tomato leaves contain solanine, which is a toxic alkaloid that is also found in potatoes when a green hue develops under the skin of a potato that has been exposed to too much sunlight. However, it's been found that tomato leaves actually have their own alkaloid named tomatine, which is not toxic and has even been found to have some health benefits, like lowering cholesterol-who knew!

Getting my ingredients together in the food processor. I love how much green there is in my kitchen during the summer months!

I used basil in my pesto, but as I mentioned in the tips, you could tinker with a different herb or even a mix of a couple different fresh herbs together in this pesto. This is one you could really make your own, or even make differently each time you prepare it!

Streaming the oil in through the feed tube. I had a jar of Giardiniera pickling in the background; totally forgot to move it out of my shot :)

If you use basil, as I did, your first taste of this pesto is going to be very familiar. However, I think you will also notice a certain brightness/vegetal flavor that will pleasantly surprise you. I also found the color of this pesto to appear brighter and more vibrant than that of your average pesto, and since we eat with our eyes first, this is a definite bonus. Plus, I feel like telling your friends and/or family that they are eating a delicious sauce made from the leaves of a tomato plant is a serious culinary flex.

Did you try this recipe, and did you make any modifications? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

Happy tasting!