Easy basil pesto pasta with peas
Yup, I even surprised myself, in fact I reckon I ought to do a mini victory dance after making a rather sinfully good pasta sauce I whipped up for the wee one and family.
I love the green stuff, as in pesto sauce. It goes with everything, ok maybe not everything, but I love it in a mozzarella cheese & tommie sandwich, with chicken, portobello mushrooms, on fish & on pizza... you get the idea.
As a wary mum of a toddler I wasn't keen on giving my little fella pine nuts and the salt levels in the ready made jars was a big no-no, so off I went on the world wide web in search of a kid-friendly recipe.
I've never made pesto before and as I'm usually mind-numbingly exhausted come 4pm the last thing I want to do is spend forever cooking up a meal, only to perhaps have it chucked on the floor. (He's at that age where he does that a lot.)
Anyhow, I swear pesto takes no time at all to make and if you throw some spinach/kale into the mix, it will still taste scrumptious. You can even make a large batch and freeze some in ice cube trays & transfer to a freezer bag to save for another time or keep some refrigerated in an airtight glass jar.
Ingredients:
Approximately 2 cups fresh basil leaves (I literally stripped my poor plant naked)
3 garlic cloves - you can use less or more, depending on how much of a kick you want.
1/2 cup Olive oil - I'm a sucker for lashings of olive oil so drizzled a little more after pulsing the ingredients together.
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese - I didn't have any to hand, so used another hard yellow cheese (grated) with less salt content.
(For adult version of pesto add about 1/4 cup pan roasted pine nuts and adjust consistency by adding more oil or a little water)
I literally threw all these ingredients into a plastic measuring jug and used a hand blender to pulse everything in short 10 second busts about 5 times, scraped down the sides and pulsed again.
The garlic definitely gave the sauce a kick, I think I'll experiment a little more next time and maybe squeeze in a little lemon juice too.
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