Pesto

corblimey

Just got some of this, wanted to try something new. But have no idea what to do with it. Would it work with all types of pasta? What about spaghetti? Is it just a case of cooking up the pasta, then a dollop of this in the middle, stir it all around and eat? Am I missing something?

olaola

Yeah - more or less. It's great in toasted sambos, or I use it in dressings and in cous cous too.

Kurumba

Here's a couple of ideas for pesto that i like..

Cook some pasta , fry up some chicken, add red onion, broccoli, or whatever else you like. Add them all to the pan and then a couple of dollops of pesto. You could also grate some fresh Parmesan over the top. Or crumble some feta cheese in to the mixture.

You could also make a bruschetta type thing, cut a ciabatta bread in half, spread a good few dollops of pesto on top, add toppings like red onion, fresh chopped tomato, goats cheese and some basil leaves, drizzle a small bit of olive oil over it with some freshly ground black pepper and grill for a few minutes until the cheese is browning...

Dizzyblonde

I like pasta salad made with cold cooked fusilli pasta, a spoonful of pesto, a splosh of olive oil and chopped tomatoes and red onions.

Tree

I use pesto as a key ingredient in my bolognaise.

It'/s also lovely stirred into garlic butter and pasted on bread.

Pesto mayonaise is savage on burgers or just about anything (stir it in to mayo till you like it )

Beerlao

pesto is great. goes lovely with pasta or toasties/bruschettas or any bready type things. and a little goes a long way. also nice on baked fish

nice1franko

Tree wrote: »

I use pesto as a key ingredient in my bolognaise.

what do u do? just stir it into the sketti at the end? or do you put it in the bolognese sauce itself?

Here's a lovely little supper I make with green pesto:
1) boil up some spaghetti
2) chop up a few rashers, cook in pan with olive oil and knob of butter til golden cripsy
3) chop up some bread for croutons (not too fussy - if there's loads of crumbs it adds to it), cook that in pan with some olive oil and knob of butter til golden cripsy
4) when the pasta's done, stir in the pesto, the bacon and croutons/crumbs
5) server it up with a little grating of parmasan on top
6) scoff it
7) marvel at how you can eat like a king for so little time and money

Tree

i put it into the sauce itself. savage stuff like

antoniosicily

please.

Pesto and short pasta only (fusilli, farfalle, whatever).

Speaking of seasonality, it's not the right time for pesto, if you want to make it by yourself I would wait until next spring.

Honey-ec

antoniosicily wrote: »

please.

Pesto and short pasta only (fusilli, farfalle, whatever).

Speaking of seasonality, it's not the right time for pesto, if you want to make it by yourself I would wait until next spring.

That's a bit simplistic.

A) He never said he was planning on making it, he just said he got some.

You can grow basil indoors all year round (I do), so it's perfectly possible to make it at this time of year.

Glowing

Roasted pine nuts are lovely on top of any pasta/pesto dish! Unfortunately most of them end up in my mouth before they get anywhere near the bowl ....

Honey-ec

Glowing wrote: »

Roasted pine nuts are lovely on top of any pasta/pesto dish! Unfortunately most of them end up in my mouth before they get anywhere near the bowl ....

I actually have a problem when it comes to toasted pine nuts. It's getting to be quite expensive...

antoniosicily

Honey-ec wrote: »

That's a bit simplistic.

A) He never said he was planning on making it, he just said he got some.

You can grow basil indoors all year round (I do), so it's perfectly possible to make it at this time of year.

Have you ever wondered why there are small white flowers in the basil plant?
The best time to pick up basil leaves is from march to october, because they are bigger and tastier.

Maggie Simpson

Get some (defrosted) frozen puff pastry & cut into 4 (roll out first if it's the non-rolled variety)

Score around the edges of each piece of pastry, about 1 inch from edge. This gives a nice crust.

BIG dollop of pesto, some cherry toms, cut in half, very thin slices of courgette & lots of parmesan/ricotta. Into the oven for about 20 mins.....serve with some bread/salad. DELISH........

ToxicPaddy

Speaking of Pesto.. is there a tried and tested recipie for Pesto that you guys recommend??? I just hate buying jars of it when it can be made so easily and kept in the fridge..

Gotta love it on just plain pasta with some fresh parmesan cheese on it.. nyom nyom :P

Dori Duz

I use Jamie Oliver's recipe. It's basic and yum!
3 handfuls of basil
1 handful of pine nuts
1handful of finely grated parmesan
1/2 clove of garlic
Sea salt and pepper
extra virgin olive oil
squeeze of lemon juice (if you want).

Like every recipe I get my hands on, I change it to suit me!

I use 1 clove of garlic. Whizz in food processor. Add the basil and whizz. I lightly toast the pine nuts and then add them and whizz them, with a tiny bit of oil to loosen mix. Put it in a bowl now and add the parmesan, not all of it, salt and pepper and lemon juice. Then add enough olive oil until it's the right consistency and taste it, adding more lemon, parmesan, salt and pepper to taste.

Play around with the and change the amounts of the ingredients to suit your tastes. It's a great recipe to start with.

I make it in bulk. It freezes really well. I put it in ice cube trays so you can then just pop out little squares of it and throw into whatever you want. I kinda want to make some now after thinking about it!!

Alun

Dori Duz wrote: »

I make it in bulk. It freezes really well. I put it in ice cube trays so you can then just pop out little squares of it and throw into whatever you want. I kinda want to make some now after thinking about it!!

No there's a good idea! I made a massive (and I mean massive!) load of wild garlic pesto earlier in the year and ended up throwing a large amount of it away.

Wild garlic pesto is well worth making BTW. Just substitute the wild garlic leaves for the basil and miss out the normal garlic. It has a more pervasive garlicky taste than 'normal' pesto, and has a big advantage that one of the main ingredients can be got entirely for free.

John Mason

i love my recipe

100g parmasam

100g extra virgin olive oil

3 garlic gloves

100g pine nuts

50 basil leaves

some salt

vis in a blender

yummy yummy

the quality of the parmsam makes a big difference - splash out and buy some really good cheese

Setun

If you've got yourself some red pesto you can't beat making a pasta salad with the following ingredients:

Feta cheese
Baby spinach
Lightly toasted pine nuts
Sun dried tomatoes (cut into smaller pieces)

Mix it all together with your fusilli or penne pasta and red pesto, and enjoy! It's one of my favourite meals.

RDM_83

Does anybody else leave out the pine nuts? don't like the taste of them and their expensive everywhere. Like Rocket pesto or half and half with basil.For cheapness use lidl sundried tomato and olive oil and if free in the mornings the herbs from Garden of Eden in smithfield.