Green Pea Pesto
This delicious, quick and easy recipe made with frozen peas is perfect served with a lovely big bowl of pasta. It will be loved by both kids and adults and makes a perfect midweek vegetarian meal.
Introduction
If I never see another jar of pesto it will be too soon. I can appreciate the speed and ease of boiling pasta and spooning sauce from a jar, but jarred pesto sauces are too salty and give little in the way of nutritional value. Pesto in a jar has hijacked the supermarket shelves and home fridges of a generation. There is another way. Pesto doesn’t have to be made with basil – and purists who insist otherwise, I say, ‘More fool, you.’ In the time it takes for the pasta to cook, depending on shape, the following pesto recipe can be made from scratch.
Ingredients
| 400g | defrosted frozen peas |
| 100g | crème fraîche |
| 1 | small bunch of fresh mint, leaves roughly chopped |
| ¼–½ | clove of garlic, crushed (to taste, remembering raw garlic is quite pervasive) |
| a squeeze of lemon juice | |
| 1 tbsp | extra-virgin olive oil |
| a handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra to serve (use vegetarian Parmesan for a fully vegetarian meal) | |
| salt and freshly ground black pepper | |
| 300g | dried pasta (orecchiette or conchiglie would be my preference here) |
Essential kit
You will need a blender or stick blender.
Method
1. Pour the peas into a wide, shallow bowl and cover with boiling water.
2. Drain the peas once softened. They don’t need to be hot.
3. In a blender, or using a stick blender, blitz the peas with the crème fraîche, mint leaves, garlic, lemon and olive oil. Pulse the mix – it is nice to have a bit of pea texture and for it not to be too homogenous. Alternatively, reserve about a third of the frozen peas and add them whole to the whizzed mass.
4. Once blitzed to the desired consistency, stir in the grated Parmesan and season with salt and pepper.
5. Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Drain.
6. Put the pea sauce into the pasta pan and stir over a moderate heat for 30 or so seconds, to take the chill off. Add the cooked pasta, mix well and serve in bowls, with extra Parmesan.
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