How To Make Quick And Easy Homemade Pesto

This homemade pesto is so easy to make and tastes delicious.

Following on from my post the other day about how I had signed the Organix No Junk pledge I am back to share with you how my week has been going.

I’ve had to stick to things that are really quick and easy to make as Tiger still doesn’t like being put down which can make cooking quite difficult.

So let’s just say that we have still been eating lots of pasta but I am pleased to report that it’s been without any pesto out of a jar.

Here is how you make pesto…

I’m not really one for measurements, I tend to just chuck it all in, this is roughly what I used but you can just keep trying and adjust it to your tastes as everyone might have a flavour they want to bring out more than another.

So I used –

150ml of olive oil

75g of parmesan cheese

50g of pine nuts

2 cloves of garlic

2 bunches of basil

Then I just whizzed it all up in our mini food processor, you can also use a pestle and mortar but I didn’t have much time, plus I’m a bit lazy!

We had it with wholemeal pasta and everyone loved it.

If you love pesto then here are ten things you can do with it other than serve it with pasta!

The other ways we’ve been eating pasta this week is with roasted vegetables and halloumi…

This is great as I can put it in earlier in the afternoon and Cherry loves cutting up the vegetables with me.

We use:

Courgettes / Mushrooms / Peppers / Onion

7 cloves of garlic (I put them in with the skin on and squeeze the garlic out when they’ve been roasted)

Fresh herbs

I heat the oven to about 180 degrees C then just leave them until I think they are done (usually about an hour).

Then I grill the halloumi for a few mins, I only grill one side as I find it goes too tough otherwise.

Then I mix the vegetables in with the pasta and put the halloumi on top.

And finally we have it with a fresh tomato sauce.

I use:

4 cloves of garlic

1 bunch of basil

2 tins of tomatoes

1 red pepper

1 tsp of sugar

olive oil

I fry the red pepper in loads of olive oil then add the garlic, making sure it doesn’t burn, then add the tomatoes, basil and sugar and leave it to simmer for about 20 mins before blending it up.

We also use this as a pizza base sauce the night afterwards.

So even though we eat a lot of pasta, it does always seems a bit different.

Oh and I’ve also been making a lot of soups in my slow cooker. I love the way you can just put any vegetable in with some stock and a few hours later have some yummy soup.