Pea Pesto

By Jamie Oliver

10 mins cooking time

Serves 2

This easy pasta sauce - featured on Jamie Oliver's Keep Cooking and Carry on Show - will cook in about the same time it takes to cook some dried pasta in boiling salted water – we’re talking about quick and easy options here. These amounts serve 2 but are easy to scale up or down. Remember you want about 75g of dried pasta per person – use whatever shape you’ve got. Or, I’ve given you a super-simple method for fresh pasta below, using just flour and water.

Italian , Vegetarian , Easy , Pasta

Recipe nutrition per serving

Calories

574 kcals

28%

Fat

29.4g

42%

Saturates

5.6g

28%

Protein

19.3g

38%

Carbs

61.9g

23%

Sugar

6.1g

Sodium

0.8g

13%

Fibre

5.1g

Of an adults reference intake

Ingredients

100 g frozen peas

¼ of a clove of garlic

2 sprigs of fresh basil or mint

30 g pine nuts

30 g Parmesan cheese , plus extra for grating

Extra virgin olive oil

Method

Sit a sieve in the pan of pasta as it cooks, add the peas and blanch for 2 minutes.

Peel the garlic and place in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of sea salt. Tear in the herb leaves and add the pine nuts.

Drain the peas and add them to the mix, then roughly bash it all up to whatever texture you like.

Finely grate in the Parmesan, and add about 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil – enough to give you a spoonable consistency – then mix and season to perfection with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Drain the pasta, reserving a mugful of starchy cooking water. Toss with the pesto, loosening with some splashes of cooking water.

Transfer to plates, and finish with a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and an extra grating of Parmesan, if you like.