Almond And Mint Pesto

I love basil and pine nut pesto, so when I came across this recipe from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, I just had to give it a whirl and it has become a staple in our house.

50 g mint leaves chopped
50 g almonds
1 garlic clove crushed
One lemon
½ tsp Dijon mustard
Pinch of sugar
75-90 ml olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Serves 4

First finely grate the lemon.   Toast the almonds, leave to cool, then place in a food processor with the mint, garlic, lemon zest and blitz until finely chopped.   Add the mustard and sugar and blitz a little more.   Slowly add the oil till you get the consistency you like, I like pesto quite runny so would use all the olive oil.   Add a good squeeze of lemon and season to taste with salt and pepper.   I make very large portions of this pesto and then freeze it in pots which works really well.

I also often cheat with this recipe and just use untoasted ground almonds and the recipe still works really well.

In his book:

Hugh serves the pesto with linguine and roasted tomatoes, but I use any shape of pasta and love to serve with stir-fried vegetables like onion, aubergine, peppers and fennel with any herbs I happen to have handy in the garden.