I wazzed up some spinach and pea pesto to stir through our pasta for dinner today. It’s such a quick and simple way to make a fresh, vegetable-packed, tasty pasta sauce. A basic pesto recipe usually calls for fresh herbs (usually basil), nuts (usually pinenuts), garlic, oil and Parmesan. I used the herbs and nuts I had to hand and also added extra veg to bulk up the sauce and add more nutrients. Feel free to replace any of the herbs, nuts, seeds or veg below with whatever you have lying around. The ingredients I used were... - fresh parsley - frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed - peas, cooked - flaked almonds - sunflower seeds - a garlic clove, crushed - Parmesan, grated (use daily-free or omit to make the recipe vegan) - one lemon, the zest and juice - olive oil To make...blitz in a food processor until it is a coarse paste. Stir through the warm pasta, refrigerate or freeze. Tip: before draining your pasta take a mug full of the pasta water. Then add a splash of this to the pesto (or any other pasta sauce) to loosen it and add a silky texture to the dish.
There is never any reason to waste any left over pesto. It can be added to many things... - in pastry pinwheels (see below) - spread in quesadillas - swirled through soup - dolloped on baked potatoes - spread on toast or fresh bread - added to cheese on toast - drizzled over pizza - spread in sandwiches
Pesto Pinwheels
I first made Joshua pin wheels a couple of months into weaning and it wasn’t a great success as he didn’t cope very well with the texture. Now, 14 months in, I thought I’d give them another go and he absolutely loved them... I will definitely be making them again. I made the filling from random bits I had lying around... - spinach (defrosted and squeezed dry) - courgette (zucchini), grated and squeezed dry - fresh mint, chopped - creme fraise. But there are so many fillings you could try (see below) To make simply mix the ingredients, spread over some puff pastry, roll up, slice into rounds and bake at 180’C for approx 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Serve fresh and crispy from the oven, refrigerate (reheat in the oven before serving to freshen them up) or freeze. If freezing I’d recommend freezing before they’ve been cooked, and baking them straight from frozen as required, but you could freeze after they’ve been baked. Other filling suggestions include: - cheese, tomato & basil (pesto or fresh) - pea, mint & cream cheese - roast veg & humous - spinach & feta - grated apple, cinnamon and cream cheese
