A Recipe Blog

My garden’s been going nuts lately (good thing!), and I found myself needing to prune a whole lot of herbs. Aside from mint, which I made into tea, I had shallots, garlic chives and sweet basil to use up. So I thought… hmm… time to try making homemade pesto! This recipe has similarities to another pesto pasta recipe of mine. My hubby chowed all his plate down with compliments to the chef :-) I’m glad I made enough for leftovers later!

Note that whilst I need to use gluten free pasta, any pasta would be fine.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

For the pesto sauce….

• 1 cup of a mix of silvered almonds & pine nuts
• 1/2 cup of a mixture of green shallots, garlic chives and sweet basil, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp garlic
• 1 tsp Masterfoods Dill tips
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper

For the pasta and vegetables bit…

• 2 large vine-ripened tomatoes, diced
• 100g of coarsely chopped shitake mushrooms
• 300g of uncooked gluten free pasta (I used tri-coloured spirals)
• 1 tsp Masterfoods Season-All
• 1 tsp of butter
• 1/4 extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup water

Directions

1. Boil water in a pot and get the pasta cooking over high heat. Add a little extra virgin olive oil to the pot if pasta is sticking together (thanks hubby for this tip!)
2. In the meantime, combine all ingredients for the pesto in a food processor. Process until well combined, light green and thick (paste-like in texture).
3. Drain the pasta and rinse immediately in hot water. Serve onto plates.
4. Rinse the pot and place the butter & mushrooms inside. Heat until golden brown over low medium heat.
5. Add pesto, tomatoes, season-all, water and remaining extra virgin olive oil. Simmer over low medium heat for about 3 minutes.
6. Serve the pesto and vegetable mixture over pasta and enjoy!

Tags: boiled, dairy, food-processed, gluten free, nuts, pan fried, pasta, quick, vegetarian