Pesto Diablo

Harissa olive oil is infused with spices to give it a lively kick that accompanies a range of foods from hummus and bruschetta to chicken and fish dishes.  This lovely bottle of harissa olive oil was a graduation gift from Evan Anderson.  Not having cooked with it much before, I wasn't anticipating such a bold flavor but found it to be absolutely outstanding in some pesto that I made this week.

After blending black walnuts and grated parmigiana cheese with coarsely-chopped basil and several garlic cloves in a food processor, I drizzled a generous amount of harissa olive oil into the mix and pulsed a couple of additional times.

The resulting mix was phenomenal on toast points and I can imagine would be outstanding if tossed with a whole wheat pasta to make a carb-friendly pasta with pesto diablo.