Pesto

I love, love, love pesto, but until yesterday I had never actually made it. I don’t know why, I never buy other pasta sauces, but it was just one of those things that I’d got into the habit of buying.

I saw a discussion on a food forum recently which pushed me into finally taking the plunge and I’m really pleased I did; I used some to make Delia’s Trofie Liguria for dinner last night and it was absolutely delicious, we loved it, it was so much more zingy and fresher-tasting than ready made. I also had some on a tomato sandwich for lunch today – gorgeous!

There’s a million recipes online – I just adjusted quantities a bit. Slightly less basil (I used all I had), no salt (I never cook with salt) and a bit less garlic in order to avoid knocking out the optician while she fixed Mr S-V's glasses today.

I’m a fool to myself – looks like I’ve just made another kitchen job for myself in future…

40g pine nuts
65g basil
40g parmesan-style cheese
125ml olive oil
1 fat garlic clove

black pepper

Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan until golden and leave to cool. Chop the cheese into rough chunks then put everything in your processor or blender, add a few good grinds of black pepper, and pulse until you have the consistency you like. I don’t like it absolutely smooth so I stopped before it got to that point.

Pour into a clean jam-jar and cover with a thin layer of olive oil. Store in the fridge. Now... how easy was that?