Basil Pesto Pasta

Green in my kitchen

I discovered this recipe in panic when dad announced that he is going to trim the Basil plant and would throw the trimmed leaves if I don’t use it the same day. This threat on a weekday, was seriously testing my basil love! I shared this pain with a colleague on skype. And like a knight in shining armor she got me this recipe from her friend. A simple to follow recipe with all ingredients handy this turned out to be a fabulous dinner.

Serves – 3. Time – 30 Minutes

Ingredients

1. Pasta – 500 gms
2. Basil – 2 cups
3. Garlic cloves chopped – 8-10
4. Cheese grated – 1 cup
5. Cashew – 2 tblspn
6. Pepper – 1 tblspn
7. Salt as per taste
8. Olive oil – 2 tspns

Method

1. Blanch the Basil. I follow a particular order of steps to ensure the color remains the rich green of basil. Boil 1.5 cups of water. When the water is rolling, add the basil. Take it out in 2 minutes and dip it in ice cold water for another 2 minutes. Save 2 tblspn of the boiled water
2. Cook pasta till 80% done. Strain the pasta saving 2 tblspns of water
3. Dry roast the cashews till light brown
4. Grind, basil, cheese, basil water, salt, pepper & garlic. The pesto sauce should be slightly runny
5. Add this to pasta. Use the pasta water to adjust the consistency if too dry
6. Drizzle olive oil and serve

Notes

• Pesto can be made in advance and stored in fridge
• Traditionally pine nuts are used for pesto. I prefer cashews. The other alternates are peanuts/almonds
• Go heavy on cheese if you like your pasta to be cheesy