Throughout my twenties pesto (out of a jar) and pasta (spaghetti usually) was pretty much my staple diet. I remember reading a news story about a student who turned green after eating nothing but pesto and pasta for several months. It wasn’t me. But I wasn’t far behind in my love of the green stuff.*

These days my diet is more varied and I rarely buy jars of pesto, preferring to make my own, so I was pretty excited when Catherine of Borrowed Light got in touch with with this recipe for basil and rocket pesto and the beautiful images to go alongside it.

If you’re thinking, make my own pesto? I haven’t got time for that! Give it a try. It doesn’t take very long at all and, once you’ve had fresh pesto, you’ll find it hard to go back to the stuff in a jar.

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{Ingredients}
  • 50g pine nuts, toasted
  • Large bunch of basil leaves and stalks
  • Large bunch of rocket
  • 50g parmesan
  • ½ pint of olive oil (extra virgin)
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • Salt and pepper to taste

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Method

  1. Heat a non-stick frying pan on a very high heat, add the pine nuts, keep it moving, the pine nuts take 30 seconds or so to toast.
  2. Put all the ingredients in a food processor and mix thoroughly.
  3. Store in a jam jar, adding a thin layer of olive oil on top, which will enable it to keep in the fridge for up to one week.

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For a quick and simple dinner, cook penne pasta according to the packet instructions, drain and stir through your freshly-made pesto. And of course if you’re gluten free this would be delicious stirred through courgetti!

*I can’t find the story online. Perhaps I dreamt it?