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I am keeping this recipe darn easy, because sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil already taste pretty friggin' fantastic. With lightly toasted pine nuts, garlic, basil, and a little great-tasting olive oil, a quick spin in your food processor turns this sun-dried tomato pesto into a 5-minute killer condiment!
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Traditional pesto purists might clutch their pearls for 3 seconds, but Italians have been remixing pesto forever and sun-dried tomatoes are a very loud, very fabulous way to tweak the basic formula. It's basically like a whole garden decided to show up and start doing jazz hands in your sauce, while you stand there staring, shocked in delicious disbelief.
And once this pesto exists in your kitchen it starts causing very tasty problems. Use it in different ways; make sun-dried tomato pesto pasta, pull off a lovely vegan pesto pasta, drizzle it over some vegan carbonara for a wonderful upgrade, or dip warm vegan garlic bread straight into the bowl.
Cool story about pesto, now let's actually make the stuff before the garlic bread starts looking at us with forlorn eyes.
Anytime I'm looking for a recipe Cinnamon Snail is my first stop. This sun-dried tomato pesto knocked my socks off! The flavor was bright and hit all the flavor tastebuds! It was great on pasta, but also fantastic on roasted veggies. Definitely a keeper!
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🥰 Why you'll adore this pesto rosso
✊ Vegan AF & GF: Yup. Another vegan Italian recipe with nary a morsel of parmesan cheese or a drop of cholesterol in sight. This is exactly why my gluten-free vegan recipes are going to be your Faveraham Lincoln.
🤔 Suspiciously Fast To Make: Toast a couple of simple ingredients, dump everything in a food processor, drizzle oil, done. The whole situation takes about 5 minutes which honestly feels potentially illegal for how good it tastes.
🛒 Small-Town Grocery Store Approved: Everything in this pesto can be found at a regular grocery store, no field trip to an Amazon warehouse, or ordering wacky stuff from the back of the Sharper Image catalog required. If your store sells garlic and olive oil, you're basically already halfway there.
✅ Tested Worldwide: Like all my vegan recipes, this one got inspected first by a dedicated squad of over 1,000 recipe testers across the planet. If something tasted sucky they would absolutely roast me about it, so yeah, this one's 200% solid.
🤫 Learn the secrets for perfect vegan Italian meals
This guide to my most popular plant-based Italian recipes is 100% FREE, & you'll love the actual heck out of it 🥰
🍅 Sun dried tomato pesto ingredients
Pine Nuts
Avoid using cheap Chinese pine nuts since they sometimes cause pine nut mouth. It's a condition where everything tastes bitter and metallic for a couple days and it's extremely rude (and avoidable). Otherwise, blanched almonds or walnuts work beautifully and keep the sauce vibing.
Fennel Seeds
Totally optional, but fennel seeds give the pesto a soft sweet herbal wink that feels very Sicilian and slightly dare I say "sausagy"?
If you grabbed some to make this and you're wondering what else to use them for, they also are amazing in vegan Italian sausage, vegan meatballs, and vegan pepperoni.
Sun-Dried Tomatoes in Oil
We're draining and discarding the oil here because it usually has a little tomato moisture hanging out in it, which makes it kinda meh for cooking, but you can absolutely use it later in salad dressings if you want to give it a cute little second life. Also- why drain the oil, only to replace it? That's because usually SDTs (uh, not STDs, OK?) are chilling out in the suckiest oil available to mankind, and who knows what other nonsense has been thrown into the soup to prolong shelf life.
If you can only find dry sun-dried tomatoes, gently warm some olive oil, toss them in, turn the heat off, and let them lounge in the oil for about 6 hours or overnight until they soften up. Just please, don't use fresh tomatoes, this is a sun-dried tomato pasta sauce recipe for a reason.
Red Wine Vinegar
Red wine vinegar is such a nice way to perk up the acidity of the sun dried tomatoes. Sherry vinegar is also fantastic here, but if lemon juice is more your thing, that's cool too.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
This is not the time for dusty, rancid mystery oil from the back of the pantry at your local VFW hall. Grab a legit quality first cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil because you can only make the most delicious pesto when the oil used is of great quality.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯 Variations
Spinach Pesto
For a smoother green option, my spinach pesto combines fresh basil leaves and (you guessed it) spinach to create a bangin' sauce that rocks your pasta's world.
Pistachio Pesto
Pistachio pesto is thick and creamy, with a tiny hint of spice from arugula and crushed red pepper flakes.
Walnut Pesto
Toasted walnuts and a tiny bit of ice to keep the color on lock are what make walnut pesto one of the gold standards (I mean, if you can have more than one gold standard) in the homemade pesto bible that is my website.
50+ of my own family's fave recipes. Carefully concocted to win over even your most anti-vegan friends.
📖 How to make sun dried tomato pesto
Alrighty my Wild West goofball goose, here's where a jar of sun-dried tomatoes turns into a pesto that bosses around pasta, levels sandwiches the heck up, and might become your fave thing ever to rock on crostini. Follow along below or jump to the recipe card if you're already feeling like chugging the sun-dried tomatoes straight from the jar.
Step One
Sweet Child O' Pine:
Place the pine nuts and fennel seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat. Stir them frequently for a few minutes until the pine nuts turn very lightly browned and the fennel seeds become fragrant. Transfer them to a plate and allow them to cool completely.
Step Two
Basil Instinct:
Add the cooled pine nuts and fennel seeds to a food processor along with the drained sun-dried tomatoes, basil, garlic, red wine vinegar, crushed red pepper flakes, and salt.
Process for about 60 seconds until the mixture is finely chopped and forms a thick paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed so it blends evenly.
✅ A few tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese (the vegan one of course) would be very welcome here, just saying.
Step Three
Oil's Well That Ends Well:
With the machine running, slowly pour in the olive oil in a steady stream so the mixture emulsifies and becomes smoother.
Step Four
Blend It Like Beckham:
Stop the processor and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add crushed ice and process again until the ice fully breaks down and the pesto becomes spreadable.
Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. This stuff is freakishly good packed into some vegan stuffed shells, or layered into you vegan lasagna!
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Yes, pine nuts can easily be replaced with walnuts, almonds, or even cashews. Each option is best when toasted briefly in a dry pan first to bring their flavors back to life.
Yes, but they should be softened first by soaking them in warm oil for 6 hours, or in hot water for about 10 minutes. This helps them blend smoothly into the sauce.
🧊 Refrigerating
Transfer the pesto to a sealed container and store it in the refrigerator for up to 8 days. A thin layer of olive oil on the surface helps maintain freshness and color so it doesn't look like it was made last weekend.
❄️ Freezing
Sun-dried tomato pesto freezes beautifully for longer storage. Spoon it into small containers or an ice cube tray so you can pop out 2 tablespoon portions whenever a pasta emergency strikes, then store the frozen cubes in a sealed container for up to 3 months.
✌️You'll also love these vegan Italian sauces:
Learn to make plant-based red sauce masterpieces in a super-fun recorded cooking class with Chef Adam Sobel!
Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Recipe
Equipment
- blender (optional)
Ingredients
- ½ cup pine nuts
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- 7.5 oz sun dried tomatoes in oil drained
- 2 packed cups basil leaves
- 2 cloves garlic peeled
- 4 teaspoons red wine vinegar
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ⅓ cup crushed ice
Instructions
- Place the pine nuts and fennel seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat. Stir and flip the nuts frequently for 3-4 minutes until the pine nuts are lightly browned and the fennel seeds are fragrant. Transfer to a plate and let cool fully.
- Add the cooled pine nuts and fennel seeds to a food processor. Add the drained sun-dried tomatoes, basil, garlic, red wine vinegar, crushed red pepper flakes, and salt. Process for about 60 seconds until the mixture is finely chopped and forms a thick paste. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed so the mixture processes evenly.
- With the machine running, slowly pour in the olive oil in a steady stream so the mixture emulsifies and becomes smoother.
- Stop the machine and scrape the sides of the bowl. Add the crushed ice and process again until the ice breaks down completely and the pesto reaches a smooth, spreadable consistency. Taste and tweak the seasoning if needed.
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Kathy S says
Anytime I’m looking for a recipe Cinnamon Snail is my first stop. This sun-dried tomato pesto knocked my socks off! The flavor was bright and hit all the flavor tastebuds! It was great on pasta, but also fantastic on roasted veggies. Definitely a keeper!
Adam Sobel says
So glad you loved this one, Kathy!