Pesto Pasta
serves 2-3
Ingredients:
for the pesto:
1 cup (50g) fresh basil
1/3 cup (50g) pine nuts
2 small or 1 large clove garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp nutritional yeast flakes
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp sea salt
generous grind of black pepper
for the pasta:
2 1/2 cups (225g) pasta – I used brown rice penne
Method
1. Firstly, cook the pasta following the instructions on its packaging.
2. Then, while the pasta cooks, prepare the pesto. Add the basil, garlic, yeast flakes, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper into a food processor/chopper. Quickly blitz all of the ingredients together, until the basil appears finely/roughly chopped. Set this aside, and toast the pine nuts.
3. Add the pine nuts into a pan and place onto a medium heat. Toss and stir them around the pan for about 30 seconds – 1 minute until lightly toasted. When this is done, remove the pine nuts from the heat, and add them into the food processor. Blitz all of the ingredients together, for about 30 seconds or so, until you’ve reached your desired consistency. You may need to stop and scrape some of the ingredients down from the sides of the food processor a couple of times. Then, set aside when this is done.
4. When the pasta has then cooked, remove it from the heat, drain, and move it into a large mixing bowl. Then, remove the pesto from the food processor and pour it on top of the pasta. Stir the pesto into the pasta until evenly covered, divide onto plates, then top with some ground black pepper and serve.
