Today, I had an urge to eat pasta, with pesto sauce. All I had was pasta and two handfuls of fresh basil from our little kitchen garden. No, no Olive oil, no Pine kernels and no Parmesan! So then, how on earth am I going to make a pesto?!
As usual, I improvised and believe me it was one of the best pasta I have ever made! Yum!
So here goes the recipe:
Ingredients:
Pasta spirals – 300g
French beans, cut into long pieces (1-2 inch long) – 200g
Processed cheese, grated – a small block about 50-75g
Basil leaves – 2 handfuls
Almonds, blanched and skin removed – 8-10
Dry red chillies – 2-3
Cooking oil – 1 tbsp
Garlic – 2 cloves, crushed
Eggs, poached/ sunny side up – 4
Butter – 1 tbsp (small block)
Black Pepper – freshly pounded (to taste)
Salt to taste
Instructions:
- Boil pasta with plenty of water and 2 tsp salt until it is tender and has a bite to it.
- In the meantime blanch the cut beans or you can microwave, as I did, without any liquid in a glass bowl, covered for 3-4 minutes (on high power)
- Make a paste of a handful of basil leaves, cheese and almonds with a tbsp water from pasta.
- In a heavy base pan heat the butter and oil together, add crushed garlic and break dry chilies into it. Sauté for about a minute or until you get the smoky aroma of chilli and garlic.
- Add drained pasta and cooked beans to the pan. Mix well.
- Next add the pesto paste, mix well and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Finally break rest of the basil leaves with hands and add to the pasta.
- Serve hot topped with poached eggs.
- And enjoy!
Serves: 4
Please try and post comments to encourage me to create more recipes.
Feel Like Cooking With Anuja 