Roasted red pepper pesto

I’ve been experimenting with different pesto combinations recently as there are so many variations you can make and I love how it works with so many things: pasta, gnocchi, roasted veggies, sandwiches and fish or meat too.

This time I decided to use roasted red peppers with cashews, but you could swap for hazelnut or pine nuts if you prefer. You can also add a tablespoon or two of crème fraîche to make it creamy, which is especially good with gnocchi, as I always find it needs a bit more sauce than pasta.

The other great thing about pesto is that it freezes really well; I usually divide some into small portions that defrost quickly to make a tasty pasta when the fridge is empty!

Ingredients

Serves 6-8

• 4 red peppers

• 50g parmesan

• 60g cashews

• 1 clove garlic

• 50g basil

• 1 tsp sea salt

• Juice of ½ lemon

• 2 tbsp olive oil, optional

Method

• Put the whole red peppers on a sheet of tin foil and place under a hot grill, blacken on all sides - this should take about 12-15 minutes, turning every 2-3. Wrap in the foil once cooked and leave to cool for 5 minutes, then peel and deseed. Allow to cool completely before making the pesto.

• Start by putting the parmesan into a food processor and pulse a few times so it is a very rough crumble, then add cashews and repeat.

• Next add the garlic, blitz and then put in the basil, lemon and salt. Pulse until you have a rough paste and there are no large bits of any of the ingredients.

• Add a little olive oil to loosen if needed, this will also help the pesto bind with pasta or gnocchi.

tip

• You can use jarred red peppers to save time.

• Roast the red peppers a day or two beforehand, so they don’t have to cool and you can use them straightaway.

• If you don’t have a food processor you could use a hand blender or a pestle and mortar - if using a pestle them you would need to finely chop the red pepper with a knife and add to the mix at the end.