Pesto is a condiment long overdue for a refresh. Garlicky, herby, and fresh, our pesto makes a couple major substitutions but retains all the same qualities of a perfectly balanced traditional Pesto. Our sauce could possibly interpreted as taking inspiration from a “Red Pesto,” but instead of sun-dried tomatoes, Chef Jeff added in some of his favorite dried chiles: smoked Serrano peppers that are a medium heat with lots of citrus-y and fruity flavors and dried Anaheim chiles, that are mild and sweet. If you’re worried about rehydrating chiles for the first time, have no fear! It’s super easy and we’ve got a video to walk you through it.

To add body to our sauce, we used walnuts to help balance out the smoky heat of the chile peppers and add a buttery sweetness- Walnuts are also used in Italy in place of pine nuts, and if you’re allergic to pine nuts like one of taste testers, it makes a great swap. Be sure to look for unsalted walnuts, and if you wanted the nutty flavor more pronounced, you could toast your walnuts before. We used shredded parmesan for your pesto, the same way the classic would, but if you wanted to play off the theme of the whole “southwest/chile” thing you could try to find cotija cheese.

Once our cheese has been mixed, Garlic and Cilantro are added to give some freshness and vibrancy- if you don’t like Cilantro, you could use parsley instead, but cilantro helps give our pesto more of a recognizable Mexican flavor. Using lime juice will add acidity to the sauce and help our mix to blitz better in the food processor and while the pesto is still being mixed in the food processor, drizzle in your olive oil. Make sure your sauce stays moving so that your oil can emulsify and doesn’t separate. This pesto goes perfectly with the Grilled Salmon Tacos we made, but you could also dollop it on top of some pasta or spread it over a grilled cheese.

Makes 72 servings.