pageview

Recipes

Roast tomato and red pepper pesto

This seasonal reinvention of the classic sauce comes to us courtesy of Knead baker, Evan Faull, and his fabulous recipe book, Café food at home. "Spoon over hot pasta or add a dollop to home-made mayonnaise for a late-summer treat", says Evan, of this sweet, tangy pesto.

Ingredients

2 large, cored, seeded, quartered peppers
2 ripe, quartered tomatoes
For roasting: 15ml olive oil
1 peeled and roughly chopped clove of garlic
60g pecorino cheese or Parmesan shavings
35g pine nuts
25g cashew nuts
5ml balsamic vinegar
For blending: 100ml good olive oil
Optional: 20g well-washed and not bruised basil leaves
salt and pepper
1 lemon

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Arrange the peppers and tomatoes, skin-sides down, on a roasting tray. Drizzle with 15ml olive oil and roast for about 15 minutes. Place the garlic, cheese, pine nuts, cashews and vinegar in a food processor and blend together gently. Add the roasted peppers, tomatoes and basil (if using) and blend at low speed. With the processor running, slowly add 100ml olive oil in a steady stream. (Depending on the thickness you require, you can adjust the amount of olive oil.) Season to taste and finish off with a squeeze of lemon juice. Place in an airtight container or sterilized glass jar – the pesto should keep for over two weeks in the fridge.

From Café Food at Home, by Evan Faull, courtesy Quivertree Publications.

Leave a comment

Promoted Restaurants

Eatout