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Luscious, vibrant zingy basil.

I love the stuff, and in spring and summers gone by, have successfully grown truckloads of it in pots. It’s the tail end of winter here, and the only thing growing in my veggie patch right now is weeds. So I was absolutely stoked to see a HUGE bunch of fresh basil at my local supermarket, and I knew what I was going to make.

PESTO!

It’s easy, no cook, and you can do it by hand in a mortar and pestle, but who could really be forked with that? I use a little blender bowl with a stick-mixer attachment. If you’ve can get your hands on quality, abundant fresh basil, this is definitely what you should make. The other key ingredients are (of course) quality extra virgin olive oil, proper parmesan cheese (please don’t use the pre-grated or powdered stuff) and a nut of some sort - I usually use pine nuts, but macadamias also work well.

What will you do with the pesto?

Make a super simple pasta with pesto, broccoli, and cherry tomatoes (add poached, sliced chicken if you want a bit more protein)

Dollop pesto on the top of a minestrone or vegetable soup

Use pesto on a pizza base with charred broccoli (yes, again with the broccoli) and prosciutto

Use as a spread on sourdough toast, and top with fresh sliced tomato or a poached egg

Use pesto as a dip, or add a small bowl to a cheese board for a pretty pop of colour and flavour

Add pesto to scrambled eggs or savoury corn and cheese muffins

What’s good about pesto?

Okay well it tastes amazing. It’s also full of good fats from the nuts and olive oil, and antioxidants and prebiotics for gut health and immunity. Look at that green pigment and tell me you don’t feel the plant power perking you up already!

Low FODMAP tweaks:

If you don’t tolerate garlic well, or are on a low FODMAP diet this one is easy. Just replace 1-2 teaspoons of the olive oil with garlic infused olive oil (not the whole amount - this stuff is strong). And if you are dairy free, I have made pesto before with nutritional yeast, and it worked really well!

Hey presto! Time to make pesto! (sorry, I had to)