A love of pesto runs in my family, but we’re not Italian. My mom introduced me to pesto when I was a kid, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I always have a jar of it in my fridge.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Now my 4-year-old’s favorite way to eat his beloved pasta is with basil pesto. I couldn’t be more proud. 

Like most little ones, he can be picky, but he won’t turn down a carbohydrate. He’s a big fan of garlic and Parmesan, which explains why he requests pesto on his penne, rigatoni and pretty much every noodle shape.

Sometimes my son will even ask for an extra dollop of pesto to eat it with a spoon.

With the season change, I’ve had the urge to switch up my pesto game, so I made roasted tomato pesto. Basil is summer to me. It just doesn’t feel right to eat it year round.

Parsley walnut pesto is another variation that gets me through the calendar year.

I realize tomatoes are a summer thing like basil, but I used the marinated roasted tomatoes you find at the olive bar or in jars with the antipasti in the grocery. They have a ton of flavor, and you don’t have to do anything to them.

I could have probably just pureed those tomatoes to turn them into a sauce, but I wanted to make them pesto official. That meant adding garlic, Parmesan and walnuts to this bright red pesto.

I folded the pesto into pasta, spread it on toast, mixed it into eggs and found myself devouring it with a spoon just like my son.

The next time I need to make tomato sauce, I may decide to do this pesto instead because it’s so fast and very tasty! A handy no-cook recipe. 

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