Pesto

It's pretty much impossible to buy  pesto without nuts, which seems a bit unfair. There's no reason you should miss out on pesto if you can't eat pine nuts, so here's a nut-free recipe. The most difficult bit is collecting all those basil leaves, especially if you want to use home-grown plants: we literally have basil colonising our window ledges and it still required us to strip a few of all their leaves. Worth the effort, though, and it's a good use of the plants as the season ends and they start to go 'leggy'. This classic Italian sauce goes brilliantly with pasta, grated over with some more Parmesan cheese, or with my Italian patties :D.

Pesto
Prep time: 10 minutes
Serves: 8

Ingredients
100g fresh basil leaves
2 cloves of garlic
6 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
50g Parmesan cheese
45g salted butter, softened but not melted
(Optional: 2 tbsps of pine nuts)

Method

1. (You could do this with a mortar and pestle, but it's easier, and quicker, to use a food processor or blender... ) Wash the basil leaves and blend to a thick paste. 
2. Peel and chop the garlic cloves roughly and add these too, along with the olive oil. Blend again.
3. Finely grate in the Parmesan cheese and whizz. Finally, add the butter and combine.
4. You can store the pesto in a jar in the fridge until needed: if you want to freeze the pesto, leave out the cheese and butter before freezing and add these just before you want it. 
5. Add a few tablespoons of warm water to the pesto before you use it, and remember that in the fridge the butter may harden and set so you'll need to warm it in a microwave before use to get it back to a thick sauce consistency.