Pesto Sun-Dried Tomato Cheese Spread
Great for a Christmas party. Garnish this colourful cheese spread with toasted pine nuts and fresh basil and serve with crackers.
Ingredients
Serves: 52
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled
- 60g basil leaves
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 30g pine nuts
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 600g softened cream cheese
- 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 155g semi sun-dried tomatoes
- 90g tomato puree
- 185g butter
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Preparation:45min ›
Ready in:45min
- Put the garlic, basil, lemon juice, pine nuts and olive oil in a processor and blend Add 1/3 of the cream cheese and all of the parmesan cheese. Pulse blend until smooth and then transfer the mixture to a bowl.
- Coarsely chop sun-dried tomatoes in the food processor. Mix in tomato puree and 1/3 cream cheese. Blend until smooth.
- Place remaining 1/3 cream cheese and butter in a bowl and using an electric mixer, beat until fluffy. Season with salt and pepper.
- Lightly grease a 1 1/2 litre baking dish. Line dish with cling wrap so that the wrap extends over sides of the dish.
- Evenly spread one third cream cheese and butter mixture in the prepared dish. Layer alternately with 1/2 the sun-dried tomato mixture, 1/2 cup cream cheese and butter mixture and 1/2 the basil mixture. Repeat layering, topping with remaining cream cheese and butter mixture. Cover and chill in the refrigerator 8 hours, or overnight.
- Carefully invert dish onto a platter and remove cling wrap to serve.
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Reviews and Ratings
Global Ratings:
(46)
Reviews in English (37)
Although I did not get to try this myself, everyone raved about it at my party. I served it with an assortment of crackers and people kept asking me for the recipe. It's a nice mix of flavors. To save time and energy, I didn't do multiple layers of each thing - I only did one of each, so there were 3 layers in total. I put the dip right onto a charger - white on bottom, red in the middle, green on top. It eliminated the need for the baking dish/plastic wrap thing, which sounded like it could have been a disaster. I also didn't have time to let it sit for a while before serving, but it certainly didn't deter my guests. This was gone by the end of the night. It looked nice too. - 16 Dec 2005 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
Very tasty and lovely creation. I had to give this 4 *'s due to its richness. I had my qualms when reading the nearly pound and a half of cream cheese and over a third of a pound of butter. However, the reviews below won me over, and I made it per the instructions. It was indeed enjoyed by myself & my guests. However, it made so much for how much a person could actually eat of it. And I had 20 hungry people! I think a person could cut the amount of cream cheese/butter mixture in half and use light cream cheese to make this more of a snack food of which people could go back for more. - 26 Dec 2005 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
I made this recipe for my Christmas Party - I followed the instructions exactly - it was a hit! Thanks for a great recipe. - 18 Dec 2005 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)