By Lizzie Moss
Pesto pasta was my go-to meal in my early twenties. Working my first proper job, coming home starving after being too busy to eat lunch and making the most atrocious pesto pasta. I’m talking cheap penne or fusilli, a jar of pesto, full cream, spinach and, if I was lucky, some pumpkin or broccoli. Maybe both.
I don’t even know if I would have put parmesan on top. In fact, I definitely didn’t. Served of course with an entire loaf of frozen garlic bread. There was no focaccia making back in those days. While my palate is ever so slightly more refined these days (and my tolerance for lactose nowhere near what it once was), there’s still comfort in a quick pesto dinner. Here’s the 2025 version and yes, I still served this with a frozen garlic bread for nostalgia.
Ingredients
- Two bunches of basil
- One garlic clove
- One teaspoon of salt
- Two tablespoons of pine nuts
- Two tablespoons of good olive oil
- 12g (ish) of Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 5g (ish) of pecorino
- 250g of spaghetti (packet pasta is fine)
Method
- Using a mortar and pestle or a small blender, crush the pine nuts, garlic and sea salt.
- Add the basil leaves, a few handfuls at a time and crush.
- Once crushed and the desired texture, add a good amount of olive oil and mix.
- Stir in the finely grated cheese – adjust to taste.
- Start cooking your pasta.
- When it’s a minute or two off being cooked or al dente, add the hot pasta into a pan on low heat.
- Spoon in the pesto and add a few ladles of pasta water.
- Use tongs to mix the pesto mixture with the spaghetti until it makes a thick, glossy sauce, coating the pasta.
- Serve hot and top with some more pine nuts for some crunch.
