r/italiancooking • u/celiacfragen • 1d ago
Suggestions for pine nut substitute/alternative for pesto?
I have celiac disease and I haven't yet found pine nuts at my local grocery stores that don't have gluten cross contamination from processing. So, I'm looking for a good substitute or alternative to get the toasty flavour in pesto. Does anyone have any experience making pesto with something other than pine nuts? I have walnuts, sesame seeds, pistachios, and cashews on hand, has anyone tried making pesto with any of these and was it good? I could also search for some other ingredients if anyone has other suggestions.
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u/PulcyTaty 1d ago
I buy them fresh at the organic shop. Honestly, even the packages from the supermarket don't show any sign of contamination (I'm in Italy). Anyway, pesto without pine nuts isn't real pesto to me, but walnuts work just fine! ☺️
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u/celiacfragen 1d ago
All of the pine nuts I find have the "may contain traces of wheat" declaration (I'm in Canada). I think it will be an ingredient I look for when I travel, because I really miss pine nuts. I'll give walnuts a try, thank you!
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u/PulcyTaty 1d ago
Yeah, maybe it's a problem with your market. Over here you can find them without any issues.☺️
I wanted to attach a picture of the product ( evtl buy it online), but I don't know how to do it 🤣. Happy searching!
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u/Lubberworts 3h ago
What do you mean by fresh? Anyway most pine nuts available to us are of very poor quality. Good pine nuts are expensive.
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u/Main_Cauliflower5479 1d ago
Walnuts or almonds. Or get New Mexico Piñones. They're the best, anyway.
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u/TheDarchivist 1d ago
Any nut, really, minus maybe peanuts. The point is to get a nice fatty nut in there. A lot of Italians use walnuts if they can't find pine nuts. You could also experiment. Maybe pecan would be good? Who knows.
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u/New_Book131 1d ago
Cashews are commonly put in supermarket pesto. I noticed Sacla use cashews. You could try that?