FRESH PASTA WITH WALNUT AND PARSLEY PESTO

Cooking within the seasons is all about making the most of what is available; walnuts with their caramel notes combined with fresh, clean tasting parsley is a fantastic combination drizzled over pasta!

Serves 4

200g spaghetti

salt

For the pesto

100g walnuts, fresh

1 fat garlic clove garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

100g hard, tasty cheese – parmesan or pecorino, grated

50g flat-leaf parsley leaves

About 150ml good olive oil

Juice of ½ lemon

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Firstly bring a large pot of heavily salted water to the boil.

To make the pesto, place the walnuts, cheese, garlic and parsley leaves into a food processor and pulse to blend.  With the food processor on, drizzle in the oil and juice of lemon, season lightly with salt and pepper and blend for a minute to emulsify, taste once more and set aside until ready.

Cook the spaghetti as directed or until al dente (tender to the bite), drain the pasta reserving ¼ cup of liquid.  Spoon over half the pesto and toss to combine; add 1 – 2 tablespoons of the cooking water to loosen up the pesto and to help give the sauce a lovely gloss, if you think you need more pesto then by all means add until you are happy with the flavour.  Check for seasoning, and serve with extra cheese.