Pistachios, Breadcrumbs and Mint Pesto

This weekend's Wall Street Journal had an article with alternatives to the basil, pine nut pesto we all make. Looking for something quick for dinner, I showed the article to Lee. She chose this one because we had all of the ingredients on hand. Gave her a chance to trim the out of control mint in the front yard.
Article: Goodbye Basil, Hello Pumpkin Seeds.
WSJ recipe:
Pistachios + Breadcrumbs + Mint
Blanch a quarter-cup raw pistachios in boiling water for two minutes. Remove, cool and process with a quarter-cup breadcrumbs, three tablespoons of olive oil, two tablespoons of chopped mint, a pinch of Aleppo pepper (available in Middle Eastern markets) and a garlic clove, pulsing until well mixed and smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. —chef Chris Cosentino, Incanto in San Francisco
Use it: Tossed with roasted potatoes or Brussels sprouts

Notes: I really enjoyed this dish. Instead of potatoes, we tossed the pesto with some whole wheat pasta, and the 'pesto' worked well with the nutty flavor of the pasta. I would make it again.
We didn't have regular breadcrumbs, so Lee had to make some from a whole wheat roll I found in the freezer. She thinks this added too much sweetness to to pesto. Next time we will try regular (white) bread to make  the breadcrumbs.  'Aleppo pepper' is not something we have on hand, so she substituted red pepper flakes. Lee later tried paprika, but she said that it overpowered the mint.
The breadcrumbs made the pesto quite dry. Next time we were thinking to add breadcrumbs to the pasta after tossing with the oil/nut/mint mixture. Lee was thinking it would be best to first combine the oil, garlic and pepper flake before adding the mint, because the the mint seems to keep the other ingredients from distributing evenly. Also, I think it needed a tad more garlic.
This recipe reminds me of a Mario Batali pasta dish that used to be one of our staples before I got fanatical about low fat cooking:
Mostaciolli with bread crumbs, fennel and mint. A simple dish with a combination of flavors that go together well. Problem is, we saw him make this on his show, and he used at least a cup of oil.
Another dish this brings to mind is a pizza that I like to make with fennel, tarragon and pistachios. This is one for a future post.

Brant