Easy Almond and red pepper pesto
This is a super easy, delicious and comforting pesto pasta dinner, to make it healthier use wholemeal pasta and instead of using 150ml of oil replace with 75ml of water and 75ml of oil.
Takes
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 400 g dried pasta of choice
- 3 cloves garlic (use less if you dont like garlic that much)
- 100 g Almonds (use sunflower seeds if allergic to nuts)
- 150 ml Olive oil (use 75ml water, 75ml oil for a lower fat version)
- 30 g fresh basil leaves (remove the basil leaves from the stalk)
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 15 ml balsamic vinegar
- 10 ml lemon juice or juice of 1/2 lemon
- 100 g roasted red peppers from a jar
- chilli flakes and basil to garnish
Instructions
- First, cook your pasta according to the instructions of the packet. Once cooked drain and rinse, keeping a little of the pasta water.
- Peel your garlic, remove any tough stalks from the basil
- Put all ingredients for the pesto in the food processor/blender and blend. If you want it chunky pulse it until it reaches your desired consistency. If you want it super smooth blend for longer until its becomes creamy and smooth!
- Taste and season to see if it needs more salt or lemon juice
- Add the cooked and drained pasta to a sauce pan and add the pesto, heat up and mix thoroughly. Add some pasta water to thin out the sauce (1 tbsp at a time). This will just help spread the sauce more. Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking by adding more salt, ground black pepper or lemon juice.
- Garnish with chilli flakes and some basil leaves.
- Enjoy!