This ricotta-based sauce is flavorful but simple.

Key Points

• Giada De Laurentiis’ white pesto swaps basil for ricotta, walnuts, garlic, Parmesan and lemon.


• The uncooked sauce is blended for a fresh, creamy flavor, similar to Alfredo but brighter.


• Pair this versatile pesto with pasta and roasted veggies for a simple, satisfying meal.

Chef and Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis is known for her Italian recipes for the everyday cook. This week, she knocked it out of the park with a twist on a classic pasta sauce: pesto. While we might think of pesto as a vibrant green sauce to slather on pasta, meat and bread, pesto doesn’t have to be green.

Traditional pesto is typically made with basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil and Parmesan, but Giada’s version has an Alfredo-like twist that we cannot wait to try ourselves. As she shared on Instagram (with the recipe over on Giadzy), De Laurentiis’ white pesto sauce uses walnuts, ricotta, garlic, Parmigiano-Reggiano and lemon zest (plus olive oil and salt).

“This white pesto is similar to a creamy Alfredo,” De Laurentiis says in her reel. However, unlike jarred or even stove-top made Alfredo, Giada says the pesto tastes “super fresh” due to the uncooked ingredients being blended in a food processor versus cooked down on a stove.

To assemble the pesto, put a cup of toasted walnuts in a food processor with the blade attachment and blend until they’re finely minced. Add in whole-milk ricotta, a heap of shredded Parmesan, some fresh lemon zest, salt, olive oil and fresh garlic. Combine in the food processor until the ingredients are evenly distributed.

De Laurentiis likes to toss her white pesto with “the main star of the show,” a pound of Manfredi Lunghi pasta, a long pasta with a ruffled, lasagna-like edge. (In fact, this pasta is so long that it wouldn’t fit into most pots, so De Laurentiis recommends you break up the long noodles before boiling.) You could also use a long pasta like pappardelle or, really, any pasta cooked al dente.

Put the cooked pasta in a bowl with the pesto and some reserved pasta water. Mix until you reach the perfect consistency—you’ll want the end product to be creamy but not sticky.

In the reel, Laurentiis digs into the pasta with no additional add-ins, but her original recipe says you can finish the dish with a sprinkling of torn fresh basil. We’d also suggest adding some roasted veggies and letting the sauce coat everything in flavor and cheesy deliciousness. No matter how you enjoy this fun interpretation of pesto, it’s sure to be a satisfying meal.