Pasta with pesto, asparagus & green beans

Traditionally, pesto is made from basil, EVO oil, Parmesan & pine nuts -it’s an ingenious way to use up your extra basil. I had some left-over from another lunch (though I did substitute pine nuts for walnuts, which worked really well). I had a fridge full of vegetables and the addition of a handful of french beans and some sticks of asparagus really took this dish up to another level!

The simple ingredients for this lovely dish!

The end product

Recipe -

For the pesto:

• ½ a clove garlic

• 1 big bunch of fresh basil

• 1 handful of walnuts (or any other nut you like)

• 1 good handful of freshly grated Parmesan or Grana Padana cheese

• extra virgin olive oil

For the pasta sauce:

• 100g pesto

• 50g green beans

• 50g asparagus

• Grated Parmesan (if required)

Method -

For the pesto:

1. Peel the garlic, then pound in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of sea salt.

2. Pick, roughly chop and add the basil leaves, then bash to a paste (or pulse in a food processor).

3. Add the nuts (very lightly toast first, if you like) to the mixture and pound again, then stir in half the Cheese.

4. Stir in some oil – you need just enough to bind the sauce.

5. Add most of the remaining cheese, then season to perfection with salt and black pepper. Taste, and keep adding a bit more cheese or oil until you are happy with the taste and consistency.

For the Sauce:

1. Bring a pan full of salted water o the boil

2. Add chopped beans & asparagus and boil for 2 minutes

3. Add 160g tagliatelle to the vegetables and cook according to the packet directions

4. Gently heat the pesto in a large pan and toss pasta and veg in this pan until coated with pesto, add a small amount of pasta boiling water to emulsify

5. Serve with a grating of black pepper and some Parmesan