Pesto is ideal for a Guessipe, because it’s pretty flexible. While pesto is traditionally made with basil, you can substitute with parsley, cilantro, carrot greens, radish greens, beet greens, and probably others! You can also use walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, sesame seeds, or pumpkin seeds instead of pine nuts. In this Guessipe I used walnuts and mostly beet greens with a little basil, but feel free to mix and match. I’ve tried many combos and they were all good. And don’t limit yourself to putting pesto on pasta – I included some other ideas, but go wild making all kinds of pesto snacks!

Guessipe

• 4 cups beet green leaves (don’t throw the stems away – check out my Guessipe for Pickled Beet Stems)
• 1/2 cup basil
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup Parmesan, grated
• 5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients except the olive oil into the food processor.

Blend while slowly adding the olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the pesto over pasta with a sprinkle of Parmesan.

Or make crostinis. These are toasted baguette slices, pesto, and crisped beef sausage slices.

Fancy up some hard-boiled eggs by adding a sprinkle of paprika and a dollop of pesto.