I find that I can easy shy away from making home-made pesto. I know, I know! It’s horrible. But listen, I try to be frugal a lot of the time and when I see the price of pine nuts that are supposed to go into homemade pesto (not to mention basil some times because it takes a lot of it!)I find myself cringing and reaching for the jarred stuff.

But, when I noticed this recipe for Almond Pesto, I thought that might be a little friendlier on my wallet and more accessible. I could be really wrong here, but its just my perception of pine nuts that I’m dealing with…So, I gave it a try and it was delicious! Not to mention the fact that its a recipe friendly for people (like me) who don’t like to use chicken because the protein comes not only from the almonds, but primarily from the beans! Well done! I made it, so can you. And I got the recipe from the November issue of Food Network Magazine and you can find it right here: Linguine with Almond Pesto and Beans .

You’ll need about 11/2 cups of flat leaf parsley.

About the same amount of fresh basil.

Get ready to add them to 1/3 cup of unsalted roasted almonds in the food processor.

Then add 1/4 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. While combining in food processor, slowly add 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil.

Blend them all together and empty contents into a bowl. Stop here a minute, gather your family around and take turns giving this mixture a whiff! Wow! It’s good!

And add 1/3 cup Ricotta cheese.

Combine.

Then stir in 1/2 cup chopped and pitted kalamata olives and 2 chopped plum tomatoes. Combine the pesto mixture with the linguine and navy beans, that have been cooking along with the pasta for the last two minutes.

I served it with these flaky honey butter biscuits.

Add more freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top and enjoy!

Please note, when we prepare this next time, we will for sure add more than 1 cup of reserved water from the pasta as it was just a little thick for our liking. But it had amazing flavor and was a great success otherwise!