On Sunday evening, I was watching the latest video from Sorted Food, which explored making things like houmous at home. Another thing they tried was pesto. They offered the tip of “blanch the basil” to get the most vivid and long-lasting green colour and a reminder that you can use nuts other than pine nuts. You can also use other types of green plant but we’ve got a lot of basil in the polytunnel so I felt inspired to give it a try yesterday.

My ingredients were garlic, basil, hard Italian cheese, cashew nuts and olive oil, along with a bit of salt and pepper for seasoning. I did the blanching (pour on boiling water, give a few seconds to set the colour and then plunge into ice-cold water) and our blender made good work of its job once I’d got enough oil in there to loosen up the thick paste. I didn’t measure for this one but judged by taste after making some initial guesses. The results were very good although we are left with a lot of pesto to use or freeze. I probably could have done a smaller batch.

Here’s the video that set me off: