Skip to content
Permagora
All recipes
Raw pestos

Raw tarragon and walnut pesto

Aniseed tarragon, rich walnut, sharp garlic. A French trinity that needs no cooking, and that wakes up any salad or raw fish.

Far from the classic Italian basil pestos, this pesto gives pride of place to a typically French trio. Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus) holds estragole and polyphenols. Walnuts bring their plant omega-3 (alpha-linolenic acid). Sharp garlic and olive oil complete a raw condiment.

Ingredients

  • Fresh tarragon

    French tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus var. sativa), not Russian tarragon, which is bland

    1 bunch (about 30 g of leaves)
  • Walnut kernels

    fresh nuts of the year if possible: old walnuts can go rancid, and their omega-3s oxidise

    80 g
  • 1 peeled clove
  • 120 ml
  • Fresh lemon juice
    1 tablespoon
  • Sea salt
    1/2 teaspoon
  • Black pepper
    To taste

Equipment

  • •1 stone mortar and pestle or a blender
  • •1 glass jar for storage

Steps

  1. 1

    Strip the tarragon

    Pull the leaves from the stems (the stems are fibrous, we don't use them). Keep the flower buds if there are any, they are fragrant.

    5 min

  2. 2

    Traditional mortar method

    In the mortar: pound the garlic with the salt to a paste. Add the walnut kernels and keep pounding to a coarse crumb. Add the tarragon leaves in small amounts, crushing gently (the circular motion releases the essential oils without heating the plant). Pour the oil in a stream while mixing. Finish with the lemon and the pepper.

    10 min

  3. 3

    Quick blender method

    Put the garlic, salt and walnut kernels in the bowl. Pulse to a coarse crumb. Add the tarragon, the lemon, then pour in the oil in a stream while the motor runs. Keep a texture with some bite, not a total purée, with a strong blender, avoid long cycles that heat the preparation.

    5 min

  4. 4

    Adjust

    Taste: add salt, lemon or a dash of oil to your liking. Decant into a jar, covering the surface with a film of olive oil to prevent oxidation.

Storage

1 week in the fridge, covered with oil on the surface. Freezing possible in cubes (ice-cube tray) for 6 months.

How to use it

1 to 2 tablespoons on steamed potatoes, alongside a raw fish (gravlax), in a tomato salad, or simply on fresh bread. Avoid adding it to a very hot dish: blend it in to preserve the volatile aromas.

Health properties

  • Estragole and terpenes of tarragon
  • Plant omega-3 of walnuts (alpha-linolenic acid)
  • Vitamin E of walnuts, antioxidant
  • Polyphenols of raw olive oil (hydroxytyrosol)
  • Garlic brings its prebiotics (fructans) that feed the intestinal flora

These preparations belong to cooking and herbal tradition: they nourish and support, do not “cure” anything and replace no treatment. Ask a doctor or pharmacist before prolonged use, if under treatment, pregnant or breastfeeding, or for a child. Follow the stated storage precautions strictly.

Precautions

Nut allergy: a major allergen, check beforehand. People watching their salt: dose to measure. Estragole at very high doses and in a prolonged way has been the subject of toxicological studies in animals; culinary doses are harmless, but avoid a massive daily consumption over months.

Sources & tradition

  • · French gastronomic tradition (Carême, Escoffier, use of tarragon)
  • · EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), toxicological assessment of estragole
  • · Studies on the composition of Artemisia dracunculus (Aglarova et al., 2008)

Continue in Raw pestos

Nettle and hazelnut pesto