Walnut and Lemon Pesto

What can I say about the King of sauces? Pesto is without doubt my absolute fave or one of them anyway. I have adapted it from the classic by adding walnuts and lemon rind and a little lemon juice. I got the lemon idea from Donna Hay and her gorgeous new cookbook – Sunshine, Lemons and Sea Salt!

I have used slightly bigger quantities because it is easier to make a bit more and keeps for about ten days covered in the fridge, even if it is a little dry, I mix in some olive oil to thin it out and it is delicious again. Apart from using pasta, it is delicious drizzled over roasted chicken and fish and also is yummy in sandwiches, in mayonnaise and on bruschetta.

Ingredients

2 cups of basil leaves

1 large clove of garlic

¼ pint of olive oil

½ Cup of Walnuts

1 Lemon

½ cup of grated parmesan

100g Spaghetti

Method

In a bowl place the basil leaves, garlic clove, parmesan and walnuts, peel the rind of the lemon and add with half of the lemon juiced. Using a hand blender slowly drizzle the olive oil until blended well with all the other ingredients and the mixture should resemble a thick paste. Don’t blend it too much, you want to retain some nice texture in the sauce.

Cook the spaghetti as normal and serve mixed in with the pesto sauce. Delicious!