Red Pesto Potatoes

Disclosure: I was compensated for this post by The Little Potato Company.  All opinions and experiences are my own.

These extremely easy Red Pesto Potatoes make an excellent side dish for many entrees. With basically five ingredients (homemade or jarred red pesto) and two being garnish, you will have this amazingly flavorful dish on the table in no time.

Boiled Creamer potatoes from The Little Potato Company with butter are very yummy, but sometimes you want to up your potatoes to match an entree. Try our very fast Easy Lemon Feta Mediterranean Potatoes, they are done in 5 minutes, yup, 5 minutes!! Or also our Creamer Potatoes en Papillote for little surprise packets served at the table.

We are serious Little potato addicts here at Noshing With The Nolands. Have you tried our latest recipes? Little Potatoes Pommes Anna, Extra Crispy Roast Potatoes, or German Potato Soup (Kartoffelsuppe). All are scrumptious using different varietals of Creamer potatoes.

Or maybe some of our other fabulous recipes you would like to try like these great ones for game day, Little Potato Irish Nachos, Million Dollar Dip with Roasted Little Potatoes, Buffalo Wing Potatoes, or Grilled Little Potato Skins.

What Are Terrific Trio Little Potatoes?

For this recipe today, we used The Little Potato Company’s Terrific Trio, which is a colorful blend of red, yellow, and blue potatoes.

The Little Potato Company describes this blend of Creamer potatoes as the yellow Creamer is noticeably smooth and buttery, while the red potato has a sweet, earthy taste. The blue Creamer surprises with deep purple skin and yellow flesh with a pronounced potato flavor and a hint of minerality.

It is one of my favorite Creamer potatoes to use as the colors don’t bleed or fade. They are completely versatile, going into so many dishes.

Little potatoes are not baby potatoes or ones that have not reached full maturity, but they are bred to be small.

Creamer potatoes are meant to be little, just like cherry tomatoes are a smaller varietal in the tomato family.

They are conveniently sized to cook to the same doneness. Plus, they are so easy to use as they come pre-washed and never need peeling as their skins are nutritious and delicious!

How Do You Make Red Pesto Potatoes?

Very simple ingredients that you can find anywhere. Have you tried red pesto before? Maybe you are more familiar with green pesto, which is basil pesto.

Red pesto gives a burst of flavor to these already delightful Little Potatoes. Only 1/3 cup pesto will give this side dish all the bold flavor that is needed. With such an easy recipe like this, it is barely a recipe!

Heat potatoes and water in a large pot and boil until fork-tender, 15 minutes.

Drain and then place back in the pot and break half the potatoes in half with a large spoon. I like to do this to get more sides of some of the Little potatoes coated with the red pesto.

Toss the potatoes with the butter and then the red pesto.

Serve in a serving dish sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and parsley if using. The whole recipe is made and ready to serve in under 20 minutes.

This dish will go amazing with roast beef, steak, lamb, chicken, turkey, or anything with a Mediterranean or Italian flair to it.

What Makes a Pesto a Pesto?

For most people, a pesto means the classic preparation of a sauce made from fresh basil, pine nuts, oil, garlic, and Parmesan cheese.

But pesto has changed over the years. It includes other ingredients like parsley, garlic scapes, collard greens, beet greens, spinach, watercress, arugula, fennel, cilantro, and kale. I have even seen ones made with nasturtium leaves.

But for this Little potato and pesto recipe, we didn’t use the green variety at all but red pesto or pesto rosso. This is made with sundried tomatoes, basil, cheeses, garlic, cashew nuts, and pine nuts.

To make this recipe super easy and one that you will want to enjoy for a weeknight meal, you definitely don’t want to fuss making it from scratch. You can easily buy it from the store already prepared and ready to use.

If you do want to make your own, you can freeze it in smaller batches. Then pull it out for a great recipe like this.

Also, you don’t always have to use the ultra-pricey pine nuts, but you can try nuts that you may have on hand. Nuts like walnuts, macadamia nuts, almonds, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, pecans and more!

Cheeses also can be subbed in like Pecorino Romano, aged cheddar, gouda, asiago, etc. Any cheese that has a little punch to it will add flavor and stand up to the garlic and tomatoes.

As for the oil, I still highly recommend olive oil. Plus, you just plain need the garlic if you don’t have maybe the garlic scapes to add.

The main ingredients, though in red pesto, is sun dried tomatoes or tomato paste. You could add in roasted red peppers, oh now that would be so good!

Do You Need To Cook Pesto From A Jar?

Store-bought pesto can be eaten straight out of the jar. That is what makes this recipe so very simple. Let someone else create a great pesto for you to enjoy.

Holiday dinners may differ slightly this year, but no one wants to get away from flavor; on the contrary, we want easy and delicious dinners we can fall back on. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we have making it for you all.

No need to even preheat an oven, just boil up your potatoes, butter them, add pesto, and garnish. It is that easy!! Honestly, for a side dish, it doesn’t get much simpler than this. Enjoy!!

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Yield: Serves 4

Red Pesto Potatoes

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These extremely easy Red Pesto Potatoes make an excellent side dish for many entrees. With basically five ingredients and two being a garnish, you will have this amazingly flavorful dish on the table in no time.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs. Terrific Trio Little Potato Company Creamer Potatoes
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1/3 cup red pesto, see notes
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• Parsley for garnish, optional

Instructions

Heat potatoes and water in a large pot and boil until fork-tender, 15 minutes.

Drain and then place back in the pot and break half the potatoes in half with a large spoon.

Toss the potatoes with the butter and then the red pesto.

Serve in a serving dish sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and parsley if using.

Notes

Try our new recipe for Sundried Tomato Red Pesto or as it is also called Pesto Rosso

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 310Total Fat: 16gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 18mgSodium: 259mgCarbohydrates: 36gFiber: 4gSugar: 2gProtein: 8g

Recipe calculation was provided by Nutritionix and is an estimation only. If you need nutritional calculations for medical reasons, please use a source that you trust.