Pesto

Peter Flynn

I believe I was once told (by an eminent authority on pesto) that the classic mix was equal weights of basil, cheese, garlic, nuts, and oil. His English was excellent but my Italian is virtually non-existent, and I must have misunderstood something, because if you try it, it's obviously wrong: far too much garlic and not enough oil. So over the years I have tried to balance things out, and this seems to work. As basil doesn't grow easily in my microclimate, I buy a pot from the supermarket, which usually gives me 25 g of leaves as my starting-point, and this makes enough for two people.

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Serves 2. Prep time: 5 minutes.

Ingredients

25 g basil
50 ml olive oil
25 g pine nuts (or cashews, walnuts, macadamias…)
25 g grated parmesan (or pecorino)
2 medium cloves garlic | chopped

Method

Put all the ingredients into a food-processor and whizz on max until blended.
Don't whizz too much: you want to keep some texture, not make a purée. Depending on your food-processor, you may need to stop and scrape down the sides or add more oil.

Serving

Serve with pasta, one with a rough surface that holds the pesto well.

Any timings underlined in red are in addition to the preparation time (eg waiting time)