If I had to pick my favourite country origin for food, it would be Mexican, hands down. I’m lucky enough to live in a place where you’re not limited to one, so if I got to pick a second, it would be Italian. Who doesn’t like a pizza, lasagne, other beautiful pastas and all of those cold cuts and cheeses!? I guess some people won’t, but they’re all up there in my midweek cook book. Mostly it’s because it’s delicious, though there’s the added benefit that it’s relatively easy and hard to screw up too badly.

One of the easiest to make and to flex is pesto. I tend to go with the green, classic Genoese style with a few twists. This particular variation doesn’t use any cheese, but if you want to knock it up a notch, replace cashews with the best Parmesan you can get your hands on!

Cashew, chilli and spinach pesto

Ingredients

• 1 garlic clove
• A bunch of fresh basil
• A bunch of spinach
• 1 green chilli
• 100g cashews
• Handful toasted pine nuts
• 1 squeezed lemon
• Salt/pepper

Method

1. Add ingredients into a blender and blitz roughly
2. If it’s too light in colour, add more spinach/basil
3. If it’s a bit too thick, add more olive oil
4. Blend into pasta of your choice. Delicious served with chopped fresh tomatoes
5. You can keep this in the fridge for a few weeks in small pots, but make sure you ‘seal’ it with a covering layer of olive oil

So good, it disappears quick as! If you have some nice ciabatta or other bread to hand, it’s excellent mopped up!