Walnut And Basil Pesto With Roasted Tomato

Basil would have to be one of my all time favourite herbs. How can you possibly resist that gorgeous smell? I love it in salads, particularly with fresh tomatoes from the garden and some bocconcini, goat's cheese or feta. Delicious!

Tomato and basil just scream summer to me.

Last week I bought a massive bunch of basil for a salad I was making and had lots left over. Not wanting to waste it, I thought I'd make my second favourite basil dish - pesto. Normally I'd use toasted pinenuts in pesto, but they can get rather pricey.

A few weeks ago I saw a recipe for a basil pesto using walnuts, so thought I'd give this a go instead. In my version, I toasted the walnuts first to give them a bit more depth of flavour and nuttiness and added lots of garlic and lemon juice.

The result was delicious! I'll definitely be making my pesto this way again. Combined with the beautiful sweetness of the roasted tomatoes, this pasta dish was fantastic for an easy mid-week vegetarian meal. Alternatively, you could serve the pesto and roasted tomatoes on toasted sourdough as a bruscetta. A lovely light lunch.

Bright, fresh and tasty. What more could you want?

Basil And Walnut Pesto With Roasted Tomato

70g walnuts
3 cups basil leaves
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 cup grated parmesan plus extra to serve
juice of 1 lemon
1/3 cup olive oil plus extra for drizzling
salt and pepper to taste
200g tomatoes, quartered
250g pasta

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Place walnuts on a baking tray and bake for 5-8 minutes, or until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
On another tray, drizzle tomatoes with oil and roast for 20 minutes or until soft. Remove from the oven and set aside.
In a small food processor, combine walnuts, basil, garlic, parmesan and lemon juice. Blitz until a course paste forms. You'll probably need to scrape down the sides to make sure everything is combined.
Add the oil and season to taste and whiz again until the desired consistency. I like mine to still be a little chunky.

Cook the pasta according to packet directions and drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking water.
Return hot pasta to the saucepan with the pesto and stir to coat. Add some of the cooking water to loosen it a little bit.
Once combined, stir through the tomatoes.
Serve in bowls with extra parmesan and a few chopped basil leaves on top.

Enjoy!

Pesto Chicken

I still had some basil left over after making my pasta last week, so decided to whip up a batch of pesto. I love the versatility of pesto and nothing beats that smell of fresh basil! I like basil pesto made the traditional way – toasted pine nuts, basil, parmesan, garlic, oil, salt and pepper. It really is so easy to whiz up in a food processor and any leftovers store well in the fridge, covered with a thin layer of oil to prevent the basil from oxidising and going black. You can even freeze it in ice cube trays for a simple meal when you don’t have the time to make it from scratch.

Not only can pesto be tossed through fresh pasta, but you can use it to add some extra flavour to a risotto, as a base for bruschetta with tomato and feta, mixed with ricotta for an easy filling for ravioli or as a marinade for chicken.

I decided to marinate some chicken in the rest of my pesto to make a tasty Monday night dinner that was really easy. If you don’t have much time when you get home after work, just toss the chicken pieces in the pesto before you bake them, but if you have time give them a couple of hours to really take on the flavours of the pesto. If you want to keep the chicken breasts whole, you can. I prefer to cut mine into tenderloin sized pieces to cook them a bit quicker. They are also nice this size if you plan to toss them through a salad.

Tonight I’m serving my pesto chicken with roast potatoes, garlic butter mushrooms and some steamed beans and snow peas. If the weather is warm, you could have a salad, or you could just use up whatever vegies you have in the fridge. The chicken is the hero of this dish, so it doesn’t really matter what you serve it with.

Pesto Chicken

2 chicken breasts, cut into tenderloin sized strips

2 Tbs basil pesto

Combine chicken and pesto in a bowl or container and mix until the chicken is well coated.

If you have time, allow to marinate for a couple of hours.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Place chicken on a lightly greased oven tray so that the pieces are not touching.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the chicken is golden and the centre is cooked.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

While the oven is on for the chicken, roast your potatoes or other vegetables.

I like to roast my potatoes with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and white pepper, but use whatever oil and seasonings you prefer.

Flat mushrooms are beautiful for roasting, especially when they go soft and start to release their juices. Simply place mushrooms on a baking tray with a knob of butter and some crushed or finely chopped garlic and thyme on top. Bake for 15 minutes or until softened. The size of the mushrooms will influence how long they take to cook. Large field mushrooms can be a meal in themselves!

Fresh Basil

I love when unexpected fresh produce comes along and completely changes my menu plans!

Yesterday when I picked my son up from childcare, there was the beautiful aroma of fresh basil in the warm, humid air. Inside the centre playground, the kids had been planting herbs and the basil plants were overflowing the wine barrel they were planted in. When I asked whether I could take some, I was told to go for it, because no one else ate it. What a bonus!

On the walk home I was thinking of all the things I could make with my basil - pesto, a tomato, basil and boconcini salad, a simple pasta sauce........

After a week of curry and chilli con carne, I thought that a nice simple pasta with beautiful fresh produce was the go. Ripe red tomatoes, fresh basil and roasted ricotta. The perfect combination!

I used a basil infused olive oil to add a bit more depth of flavour, but any good extra virgin olive oil will do.  You won't need all of the roasted ricotta for this dish, so keep the rest for breakfast or lunch. Good food doesn't have to be fancy!

Tomato, Basil and Baked Ricotta Pasta

500g fresh ricotta

250g short pasta of your choice

3 small ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped

2 sprigs of fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped

Finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon

A handful of rocket

Salt and pepper to taste

A good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Grated parmesan and extra basil to serve

To roast the ricotta, pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees. Slice the fresh ricotta into 2cm wide slices and place on a greased oven tray. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until starting to turn golden on the outside. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

When cooled to room temperature, cut roughly into 1cm dice.

Cook pasta according to packet instructions and drain, keeping about a cup of pasta water to the side.

Return the pasta to the same saucepan with the chopped tomatoes, torn basil, lemon rind and juice, oil and pasta water. Season to taste and stir gently to combine the flavours.

Add the ricotta and rocket and gently toss to combine.

Serve with some extra basil over the top and a grating of fresh parmesan, if you like.

Enjoy as a simple dinner or an easy lunch.

And To Drink....

I was planning to match this simple pasta dish with a nice light, fruity pinot noir. A storm had just set in and we'd got absolutely saturated on the walk home from school. It was pouring with rain and the temperature had dropped. I was secretly looking forward to opening a bottle of red. In typical Melbourne fashion, ten minutes later, the sky had cleared, the sun had come out and the temperature and humidity had risen. Now I was hot and wanted a refreshing white!

The choice of the day was the Vinaceous 'Shakre' chardonnay from Margaret River. I came across these wines at The Fabulous Ladies Wine Society Melbourne dinner a couple of months ago. I was blown away by the freshness of the chardonnay and how un-chardonnay it tasted. Full of citrus, passionfruit and zing, it's not quite like a sauvignon blanc, but not like a rich buttery chardonnay either.

It was a perfect match to the lemon in the pasta and complimented the sweet tomatoes and fragrant basil. A lovely drop to enjoy on what ended up being a warm night.