Make Sun-Dried Tomato Basil Butter

A vacation inspired recipe…

Several years ago, I took a trip to Los Angeles. Following a visit to Mission San Juan Capistrano, I had a great outdoor lunch at a restaurant called Sundried Tomato Bristo. As the name implies, the menu included many dishes featuring sun-dried tomatoes. They also had one of the best bread baskets I’ve ever seen at a restaurant. Several types of bread were paired with multiple butter options, including a sun-dried tomato butter.

I ate a lot of great things in Los Angeles, but that butter stuck with me. When I got home, I wanted to recreate the experience. I went looking for compound butter recipes featuring sun-dried tomatoes. I found one called Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Butter on the website for Whole Foods and decided to give it a try. Here’s the original recipe. I’ve since made this butter many times and almost always have some on hand. Here’s the process. Note that I’ve doubled the ingredients.

Ingredients

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 tablespoons oil-packed, sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped
2 tablespoons basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash of black pepper

Directions

Blend the sun-dried tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper together in a food processor. Continue blending until the tomato chunks are fairly small.
Add butter and blend until everything is mixed together. It helps to chop the butter into small chunks.
Remove the mixture from the food processor and place in a container with a tight lid.
Refrigerate at least 15 minutes, but ideally overnight.

Using the butter

Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Butter tastes great on bread, of course. I have also used it on spaghetti, chicken and even mashed potatoes. I expect it would be a good addition to some veggie dishes. What do you think Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Butter would taste good with? If you give this recipe a try, let me know how you use it in the comments.