Recipes Appetizers Dips Cheese Dips Walnut Pesto and Goat Cheese Dip 5.0 (2,669) Add your rating & review Fast Hors d'Oeuvres By Tom Colicchio Tom Colicchio Instagram Tom Colicchio is the chef and owner of Crafted Hospitality and the head judge and executive producer of the Emmy-winning Bravo hit series, Top Chef. He hosts the iHeart Radio podcast, Citizen Chef. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines and Sisha Ortuzar Updated on October 23, 2019 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: © William Meppem Total Time: 30 mins Yield: 4 cups Ingredients 14 ounces walnuts (2 1/4 cups) 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 10 ounces fresh goat cheese, at room temperature 4 small shallots, minced 1/2 cup finely chopped watercress leaves 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice 3 Hass avocados, cut into 1/2-inch dice Small radishes and assorted vegetable sticks, such as celery, fennel and carrots, for serving Directions Preheat the oven to 350°. Spread the walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and toast for 7 minutes, or until golden. Transfer to a plate and let cool. In a food processor, working in 2 batches, pulse the walnuts until coarsely chopped. Add the second batch of nuts back to the food processor and pulse in the 1/2 cup of olive oil. Do not overprocess: the pesto should be slightly chunky. Season with 2 teaspoons of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. Transfer the pesto to a medium bowl. Mix in the goat cheese, shallots, watercress and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Fold in the avocados. Drizzle the dip with olive oil and serve with radishes and assorted crisp vegetables. Make Ahead The dip can be refrigerated overnight without the avocados. Bring to room temperature and fold in the diced avocados before serving. Rate it Print