Ingredients
Pesto recipes are always “to taste” – use a little bit of what you have and work around how pungent the herbs are and what you have in the kitchen. Here is what I did with this really strong, sunny number:
- 2 large bunches of purple basil, leaves carefully wiped with a damp cloth
- 200g sunflower seeds (I often use sunflower seeds in pesto as a perfectly good healthy alternative to pine nuts and considerably cheaper)
- 100g parmesan
- 200ml extra virgin olive oil
- 3 fat cloves of garlic
- The zest of half a lemon pared
How To
Blend the ingredients all together in a blender into a thick paste. I like to still retain some texture – a little bit like “crunchy” peanut butter.
The uses for pesto are almost too numerous to list but start with the obvious: pasta and gnocchi and then think crusts on chicken and fish and then spread on crackers and fresh bread….