richard A double hit of carbs here – like a chip butty – only posher – innit.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Skill level: easy
Serves: 2
Recipe: Simon Hopkinson
Ingredients
For the pesto
- the leaves from a small bunch of basil
- 1 clove of garlic – crushed
- olive oil – 50-75 ml
- pine kernels – lightly toasted in a dry frying pan – 1 tbsp
- Parmesan – finely grated – 1/2 tbsp
- s & p
For the linguine
- small new potatoes – scraped – 100g
- linguine – 150g
- fresh mint – 2-3 sprigs
- extra grated Parmesan
To make the pesto, place the basil, garlic, pine kernels and a little salt and pepper in a food processor and switch on. Slowly add enough olive oil to form a smooth light-textured paste. Mix in the Parmesan and set aside.
Cook the potatoes with the mint in a pan of salted boiling water. Leave in the water until needed.
Meanwhile cook the linguine until al dente
Add 4-5 tbsp of the potato cooking water to the pesto to loosen it up.
Drain the remaining water and cut the potatoes in half lengthways.
Drain the pasta.
Mix together the pasta, potatoes and pesto and serve with a sprinkling of parmesan
Verdict: Excellent. This is essentially pasta and pesto with a little flourish of potato.
Drink: A bottle of £4.99.
Entertainment: Episode 1 of ‘Rock Follies’. Rula Lenska, Charlotte Cornwell and Julie Covington are the ‘Little Ladies’. A trip down memory lane for Blogger-R and an entirely new experience for Blogger-D. And not bad at all.
