Pesto Pasta Salad

Helloooo….I’m back!

Do you ever see something in a supermarket and think “I could make that”? Well, that’s what I did with this pasta salad. I love those little tubs of different salads that you find in the supermarket chiller cabinets but, let’s be honest, they’re a complete rip-off so I thought I’d have a whirl at making a similar one myself. In fact, I might just work my way through the entire range at Waitrose – making my version of my favourites.

I’m not sure we’ll be having a summer this year (we don’t even seem to have had spring yet or maybe I blinked and missed it – this is definitely the wettest drought I’ve ever seen!) but if we ever get a break from the rain this salad is just the sort of thing I’d be happy to have for lunch with a few tomatoes and maybe some rocket, whilst sitting in the garden watching the grass grow.

125g pasta shapes (I used trofie)

125g fine green beans

1tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp pesto

30g pine nuts

Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling water until al dente; top and tail the beans and cut into thirds, throw them in with the pasta for the last 3-4 minutes of the cooking time. Drain the pasta and beans and rinse well under cold running water to stop the cooking process; drain well then stir in the olive oil followed by the pesto.

Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan (watch them like a hawk – they burn if you so much as blink!) and sprinkle over the salad before serving.

I prefer this at room temperature rather than fridge cold, the flavour of the pesto really comes through.