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!

Haloumi and Herb Stuffed Mushrooms

It's meat-free Monday again and I couldn't go two weeks in a row without using haloumi in my recipe! If that makes me a bit boring, well then so be it. Instead of just frying up the haloumi in slices, I did grate it and stuff mushrooms, so I was a bit creative!

The haloumi went all oozy in the oven and mixed with some herbs it tasted delicious with the juicy mushrooms. To top it off, a homemade red capsicum and cashew pesto made a dressing of sorts. A nice light vego meal to start the week.

Haloumi and Herb Stuffed Mushrooms With Red Capsicum Pesto

1 medium sized red capsicum

1 clove of garlic

1/2 cup toasted cashews

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1-2 Tbs olive oil

4 large field mushrooms

180 g haloumi, grated

A few sprigs each of oregano, thyme and parsley, finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

A few handfuls of baby spinach

To make the pesto, cut the capsicum in half and remove the stem, seeds and membranes. 

Place skin side up on a sheet of foil under the grill and grill until the skin is charred and blistered.

Wrap the capsicum up in the foil and set aside for 10 minutes to make the skin easier to remove.

When cool enough to handle, peel the blackened skin off.

Place the capsicum, cashews, garlic, oil to taste and lemon juice in a small food processor and blitz until combined but still a bit chunky. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add more oil if it seems too thick.

Set aside until you are ready to serve.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Place mushrooms on a baking tray and drizzle with oil. Bake for 10 minutes or until starting to soften and release their juices.

Meanwhile, combine the grated haloumi and finely chopped herbs.

Take the mushrooms out of the oven and pile the cheese and herb mixture on top. Grind some pepper on the top and then return to the oven.

Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft and the haloumi is golden.

To serve, toss the baby spinach with some of the pesto and pile on to plates. Top with two mushrooms each and another few blobs of pesto.

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!