Basic Pesto

So, apologies to the daily food blog readers who have seen this before as it's already posted there but I decided as I get so few readers over there it should be on the main blog. Plus, it's rather crazy that my all time favourite meal isn't on the blog yet - pesto pasta. I know, it's very basic and common but I love it, I could seriously eat bucket loads of pesto pasta and love pesto on just about anything :-) Plus, as we now have a garden we now have loads of basil growing like mad which is fab as pesto takes a lot of basil - even for a small amount!

I have been using this recipe since we pretty much became vegan, finding a good pesto recipe was going to be essential to my transition after all! ;-) The only reason I haven't blogged it yet is that it's essentially not my recipe - this is basically the pesto recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance and it's brilliant. I decided to blog it as I have used my preferred pine nuts here and have scaled it down to suit enough pasta to serve 4.

Basic Pesto: serves 4 as a pasta sauce.
20g pine nuts
50g fresh basil
2 small or 1 large clove garlic, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
60ml extra virgin olive oil
4 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast flakes ground to a powder.
1 tsp lemon juice
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300g pasta to serve four

Lightly toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan and set aside. Wash and dry the basil then place in a food processor with the nuts, garlic and salt. Process until finely chopped, stop and scrape down the sides if need be. With the processor running slowly pour the olive oil down the chute until all added then process until fine in texture. Add the lemon juice and yeast and process again.

Note - I actually prefer to use a mortar and pestle here as my food processor struggles with smaller quantities. I'll use it to finely chop the basil, to make it all smaller but you can just chop it with a knife. Then I transfer to the mortar and pestle and pound it with circular motions with the pine nuts, chopped garlic and salt until it's a paste then I'll add the lemon juice to loosen it up then slowly add the olive oil, bit by but until it's the consistency you see above, smooth but still grainy. I then stir in the nutritional yeast until dissolved and creamy. This is actually the more traditional way to make pesto which, according to Wikipedia actually means "to pound" and is the same root word we get pestle from! So there you go, be traditional, ditch the food processor and get a little workout!!

Cook the pasta in well salted water and drain, any type is good here but I do love this Fusilli Lunghi Bucati No. 5 by De Cecco I've used here :-) Return to the pot and toss the pesto in, mixing well. It's important to do this off the heat, don't heat pesto as the basil can turn black and the flavour will be compromised, just toss it in the hot drained pasta and go! If it seems a little dry, sometimes I'll add a little more olive oil, sometimes a little pasta cooking water (depends if I'm dieting or not!) Season with salt and or pepper if needed at the table.

Of course you can add loads of add ins to this - we love cherry tomatoes, or sometimes sun dried tomatoes and sliced black olives. Fried vegan chicken strips would be lovely, seitan or some white cannellini beans for added protein would all go well too.

Source: Slightly adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance.

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Nutritional Information: Based on 1 serving out of 4.

Calories: 422

Protein: 10.2g

Fat: 19.2g

Sat Fat: 2.5g

Fibre: 2.2g

Carbs: 55.9g

Sugar: 2g

Sodium: 196mg

Pesto Pasta with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Black Olives

This is the pesto recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance that I also used on the earlier pizza post. It's so good, and I used to be a major pesto fiend, didn't think it would be so good without the parm but think I even prefer this to cheesy pesto and it's so easy. We had it with the garlic bread rolls already posted.

Serves 2:
10g pine nuts, toasted
18g basil (I use a 26g bag of basil, it weighs about 18g when you remove the stalks)
1 clove garlic, crushed and roughly chopped
1/16 tsp salt
30ml olive oil (2 Tbsp)
2 1/4 tsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
150g pasta (dry weight)
30g sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
30g sliced black olives
black pepper

Add the basil, pine nuts, garlic and salt to a food processor and process till well chopped. Slowly add the olive oil in a steady stream down the feed tube. You will have to stop it and scrape the sides with a rubber spatula. Add the lemon juice and yeast then process well until no large bits remain. Pour over cooked pasta then add the tomatoes, olives and black pepper, stir well and serve.

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Tofu Dill Salad Sandwich

From: Vegan with a Vengeance.

Very good sandwich, I used shallots instead of red onion in the tofu, and added some chopped dill pickles in the filling as well which went really good with it. I would probably next time toast the bread first as well, just to hold it all in better.

Pesto Pizza with Sundried Tomatoes, Black Olives, Red Onion and Mushrooms

This was a great pizza, thick and fluffy homemade base spread with the Vegan Pesto from Vegan with a Vengeance and topped with sliced mushrooms, red onion, black olives and chopped sun dried tomatoes. Perfect with a glass or two of red wine!

Pizza Base: 


225g extra strong white bread flour
1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp sugar

1 tsp active dry yeast (not instant yeast)

150ml hand hot water

1 tsp olive oil (plus more for greasing)

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl and set aside. In a large bowl dissolve the sugar into the warm water then sprinkle on the yeast. Leave it for 10 minutes to get all foamy. Add the olive oil and whisk it up. Stir this into the flour with a wooden spoon until it comes together in a ball. Whilst adding some more flour to prevent sticking, knead on a floured surface for 10 minutes, it should be smooth and elastic. Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour. Punch down knead a couple times, cover and let rest 15 minutes. Now hand pat down or roll out into a circle, however thick you want the base. Keep in mind it will rise some more.

Spread with pesto, I used the recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance then top with said toppings and bake in a 200C oven for about 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and puffed up.

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