Rocket Pesto (Arugula) - a fresh and vibrant pesto made with rocket. With pine nuts, parmesan cheese and a zing of lemon.
Pesto is one of my favourite ways to bring bags of flavour to a dish with minimal effort, and this Rocket Pesto is the latest addition to my pesto recipe collection. The fast and easy pesto is packed with the fresh herby taste of rocket (arugula) with a little zing of lemon.
I know some people find rocket a bit peppery, but the parmesan cheese and pine nuts in this pesto recipe really mellow out that sharp taste.
Ingredients you will need for this recipe
- fresh rocket (arugula)
- pine nuts
- fresh parmesan
- garlic cloves
- olive oil
- fresh lemon juice
- salt
*Please see the recipe card below for exact quantities and detailed instructions
How to make this recipe
- Place the garlic and parmesan in a food processor.
- Process until chopped.
- Add rocket and pine nuts to processor and continue to process until everything is very finely chopped.
- Add olive oil.
- Process until combined.
- Add lemon juice and salt to taste.
My top tips for making this recipe
- This recipe may have a little less oil than you are used to seeing in other pesto recipes, but I like to keep my pesto on the thicker side - good for spreading/dolloping etc. This also means that I can just mix some of the rocket pesto with more olive oil when I need a more liquid consistency for drizzling/dressings etc.
- This is a recipe where I definitely remove the core from the fresh garlic cloves. For more information on when and how to core garlic cloves, see this post.
Serving suggestions and ideas for add-ins
- You could swap some or all of the pine nuts for walnuts or cashews.
- Stir through pasta with some extra olive oil.
- Easiest salad dressing ever - just combine the pesto with some olive oil and drizzle over a pasta salad like this one.
- I use pesto as a base for my pizza instead of tomato.
- Make a simple dip by combining the pesto with sour cream.
Some recipes to use your rocket pesto in
Pesto Crusted Salmon Fillets - fresh salmon fillets, topped with pesto, parmesan and panko crumbs then oven-baked. Dinner in 20 minutes!
Creamy Cheese & Pesto Chicken Breasts - moist tender chicken breasts topped with cream cheese and basil pesto then oven baked for a quick low-carb dinner.
More pesto recipes you may enjoy
Rocket Pesto
Ingredients
- 100 g rocket (arugula) approx 3 cups firmly packed
- 50 g pine nuts ⅓ cup
- 50 g parmesan cheese
- 2 garlic cloves cored - see my notes
- ¼ cup olive oil
- juice of ½ a lemon to taste
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Place the garlic (2 cloves - cored) and parmesan (50g) in a food processor and process until chopped.
- Add rocket (100g/approx 3 cups firmly packed) and pine nuts (50g/⅓ cup) to processor and continue to process until everything is very finely chopped.
- Add olive oil (¼ cup) and process until combined.
- Add lemon juice to taste (from ½ a fresh lemon) and salt to taste.
Notes
- This recipe may have a little less oil than you are used to seeing in other pesto recipes, but I like to keep my pesto on the thicker side - good for spreading/dolloping etc. This also means that I can just mix some of the rocket pesto with more olive oil for drizzling/dressings etc.
- This is a recipe where I definitely remove the core from the fresh garlic cloves. For more information on when and how to core garlic cloves, see this post.
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