Check out this lovely pea pesto mixed into spaghetti - just like classic pesto, only more summery!! I found this recipe in the latest edition of Waitrose Kitchen (July 2013), a really nice food magazine - it made me hungry just reading it, and I plan to try a few more of the recipes from it in the coming weeks.
I'm not the biggest pea lover, but this turned out to have a nice flavour - not too strongly pea-flavoured! The only thing I would say about this pesto is that it does have quite a strong garlic flavour - great for me as I love garlic, but if you are not so keen you could miss out one of the cloves.
According to the Waitrose Kitchen magazine, one portion is a reasonable 518 calories (if you're counting!) and of course all those peas help towards you getting your 5 a day - something I've recently been aiming to do every day.
Recipe - Pasta with Pea Pesto
Serves 4
350g dried spaghetti
400g frozen garden peas
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
50g parmesan, roughly chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
The juice of 1 lemon
25g basil leaves
Method:
1) Cook the spaghetti according the packet instructions.
Once cooked, drain the pasta but reserve a cupful of the cooking water.
2) Whilst the pasta cooks cook the peas in a saucepan of
boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain and leave to cool.
3) In a food processor (I used my Kenwood Mini Chopper – see
here) blend together the garlic cloves, parmesan, 2 tbsp of the olive oil, the
juice of half a lemon and a ¾ of the basil leaves to form a thick paste. Add
the peas and blitz again until just combined. Season the mixture.
4) Put the spaghetti back into a saucepan with 6 tbsp of the reserved cooking water, the pea pesto mixture, the remaining oil and the juice of the other half of the lemon. Serve scattered with a few torn basil leaves and some grated parmesan.
Lisa x
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