Pasta with creamy Garden Rocket Pesto

With the summer season coming to an end, basil plants are finding their way onto peoples plates.  During the summer, on almost every Spanish table, there will be one or two potted basil plants. Not only does the basil look and smell wonderful it is a natural mosquito repellent. But with the change of season and less mosquitos to ward off, this gorgeous aromatic plant will more than likely end up in a dish much like my delicious mediterranean garden rocket pesto.

This rocket pesto is best served cold with warm pasta. It also works as a dip or topping. It involves no cooking and almost no preparation. You just need to cook some of your regular pasta.

The ingredients for homemade pesto can be expensive if you don’t have basil growing in pots on your table or rocket growing in your garden. I used a 50gram bag of rocket, just a handful of basil leaves and half an avocado.

Avocados can also be another expense so I sometimes use soya yogurt as an alternative. Like most pesto recipes there are nuts in this recipe but instead of pine kernels I use cashew nuts, again making savings!

You will need a speedy blender for this recipe and equipment for cooking pasta.

Pasta with creamy garden rocket pesto

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Serves: 2 Cooking Time: 20 minutes 20 minutes

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

Ingredients

50 grams fresh Garden Rocket, Arugula leaves

30grams natural cashew nuts

2 garlic gloves

A handful of fresh basil leaves

Half an avocado

5 tablespoons of olive oil

pinch of salt

Instructions

 

1. Add the cashews and the peeled garlic gloves to your high speed blender. Blend until finely chopped.
2. Add the rocket, basil, avocado and salt. As they blend add the oil little by little. You can add all the ingredients in one go if preferred. Depends on what type of blender you have.
3. Blend for 3/4 minutes for a well combined creamy mixture.
4. Add to your freshly cooked pasta and serve.

 

Notes

#If you don't want to add much oil you can substitute a couple of tablespoons of oil for water.

#Double the ingredients for more servings. Or, add an additional 3 tablespoons of water to the recipe if you want it to spread that little bit further:)