Probably best known for their use in pesto sauce, pine nuts have a very delicate taste and texture and are high in protein which makes them especially useful in a vegetarian diet. They can be eaten raw, when they have a soft texture and a sweet buttery flavour and are especially good in salads. They are delicious toasted as this brings out their flavour and adds a little extra crunch.
Sweet and sour stuffed aubergines
Ceps tortellini with roasted nuts and sage butter
Picnic pasta salad
Sardine beccafico
Vegetarian haggis stuffed mushrooms
Moroccan Puy lentil salad
Spinach, feta and pine nut salad
Gluten-free Venetian carrot cake
Torta di Serretto (Serretto’s cake)
How to make pesto
Pine nuts are oily and rich in protein, so they tend to go rancid quite quickly; store them in the fridge and they will keep longer.
The longer, thinner Asian varieties are higher in oil than American or Mediterranean types. Pine nuts have a rich buttery, resinous flavour and are used in many savoury dishes, especially vegetarian ones, but are particularly associated with Italian, Mediterranean and Asian cooking. They’re a key ingredient in pesto and appear in lots of pasta dishes.
Type the ingredients you want to use, then click Go. For better results you can use quotation marks around phrases (e.g. "chicken breast"). Alternatively you can search by chef, programme, cuisine, diet, or dish (e.g. Lasagne).
BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
