Pesto Take Two

As some of you may remember, I tried and failed to make pesto back in September. Last week I came across another pesto recipe and decided to try it so that I could make pesto and mozzarella tarts. In case it also failed, I bought a jar of ready made sauce! Well, I'm happy to report that this recipe (I think it was from delicious.) works perfectly, though I have changed the amount of parmesan as it was slightly overpowering. This does mean that the ingredients are now terribly easy to remember as they're all the same quantities or by eye.

You'll ideally use a a mini food processor for this but If you were feeling up to it a pestle and mortar should work too, just don't try to overload it. I promise that if you make this you won't regret it, or go back to jars as it only takes the amount of time the 10 minute pasta takes to cook.

Pesto Recipe

Serves 2

If you're vegetarian and therefore don't eat parmesan then check out my glossary for alternatives

Ingredients

30g basil (I just use a 28g pack of basil from the supermarket and don't bother making up the difference)

30g parmesan

30g pine nuts/kernels

Pinch of salt

Small garlic clove

Good quality olive oil

Method

Place the garlic and salt in the food processor and quickly chop it into pieces.

Next fold in the basil leaves and blitz them.

Pour in the pine nuts.

Grate over the parmesan.

Whizz it all together in short bursts so as not to overwork the mini processor until it's all chopped together.

Slowly pour in the oil, preferably through the holes in the top of the lid, or remove it and do this by hand, until it has formed a paste that you can spoon over the pasta.

If you want to you could add some more pine kernels and mix them by hand so that you get whole ones in the dish.

Divide between the two bowls of pasta and enjoy.