Sun dried tomato pesto

A delicious red pesto made from sun-dried tomatoes and sunflower seeds that is perfect for pasta or as a snack on crostini. In the picture, I've spread some pesto on a crostini and then topped it with small rolls of prosciutto and fresh thyme, which turned out very well, but of course it's neither vegetarian nor gluten-free. However, the pesto itself without the accessories I serve it with in the picture is both vegetarian and gluten-free.

I've made this a few times now and tested quite a few different brands and varieties of sun-dried tomatoes. The variant you can buy without oil works fine, but requires a little more work in the food processor. The variant that is in oil works best and last time I also used the oil that the tomatoes are in instead of pouring it out and then adding another oil, which turned out really well and felt less wasteful. However, I suppose you need to check the type of oil used and make sure it is of good quality if you want to use that method.

Instead of putting the ingredients one by one in the food processor as I do in this recipe, it is of course possible to prepare (shred/press what is needed) and just throw everything into the food processor. However, I think I have experienced that it becomes a smoother pesto if I run the ingredients in batches.

I use this pesto for pasta, on pancake buffet and as a general condiment for various things. A tasty thing you can do is e.g. to use this pesto for a panini with bread, mozzarella and a little oregano. I have estimated the number of servings at 8, but it depends entirely on what you use it for so it was a bit of an average value. The total amount of finished pesto is about 2 dl.