Rustic Pine Nut “Sauce”

This isn’t so much a sauce as a topping, and boy does it deliver. It’s on the must-repeat list. The ingredients are pretty simple: pine nuts, bread crumbs, red onions, with a couple of surprises like capers.

Recipe here (I didn’t use the tomato variation though it sounds good, too). Yes, it’s from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian again.

I wonder if it would be good with almonds or walnuts or pecans instead of pine nuts. I’m guessing yes. I served it on top of pasta, but I think it would also be good on top of veggies of any kind. The crunchiness has an almost bacon-like quality.

Make sure to check out the comments in the last post for a special surprise. Sarah Towle has offered a promo code for her most excellent Paris travel app for the first five responders. She’s celebrating the release of the bilingual version. Merci beaucoup, Sarah!

P.S. I just tried this recipe with half pine nuts/ half cashews, and it was totally excellent. Pine nuts are crazy expensive—I hear there’s a shortage.

If you liked this post, check out both my “recipes” page, which features recipes original to this site—and the category “food” on the left—where there’s lots more recipes and more than a few Bittman trials.