I love growing my own herbs and I have plenty of basil at the moment, I also had 2 salmon fillets in the fridge so thought it a good time to make some Pesto. Its so easy to make and the ingredients are generally something I always have in my cupboard. Here is the recipe!
Ingredients (Serves 4)
You will need a Pestle and Mortor or a food processor. I used a Pestle and Mortor.
1 Garlic Clove
2 Big Handfuls of Basil
2 TBSP Toasted Pine Nuts
1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan
Olive Oil (about 3 TBSP)
Half a Lemon
Salt & Pepper
Start with a peeled garlic clove in the Pestle and Mortor and pound until crushed down. Then add the basil leaves and continue to pound until they are broken down, soft and mushy. Next add the pine nuts and crush these into the mixture until combined followed by the grated parmesan. The mixture should be very chunky but all broken down and combined. Now you can start slowly adding Olive oil to the mixture, mixing this in until it is a nice chunky but a spreadable consistency. I used about 2/3 tablespoons. Now add a squeeze of lemon juice and and salt and pepper to taste.
Thats all! I then continued to pan fry 2 salmon fillets for a minute or two, take off the heat and spread the pesto on the top of the samon fillets then place uder the gril for another 4/5 minutes – depending on the thickness of the salmon fillet. I like mine to be only just cooked so it is still moist and falls apart easily.
I served this on a bed of arugula with some stir fried veg (mange tout, baby corn, vine cherry tomatoes (halved) and some steamed broccoli.
