Marcus Wareing’s home-made pestos
Pesto is especially delicious when it’s home-made and eaten straight away – and it makes a perfect sauce for fresh pasta. Traditional basil and pine nut pesto is always good, but it is always worth experimenting with other ingredients
Rocket and pumpkin seed
Serves: 6 Preparation time: 10 minutes
125g rocket 60g grated Parmesan cheese 60g pumpkin seeds 200ml olive oil sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Put the rocket, Parmesan and pumpkin seeds in a blender or food processor and pulse-blend to roughly chop. Add the oil and continue to pulse-blend until you have a chunky paste. Season and serve.
Tomato and rosemary
Serves: 4 Preparation time: 20 minutes, plus cooling Cooking time: 2 hours
10 ripe plum tomatoes, or 100g semi-dried tomatoes 150ml olive oil, plus extra for drizzling 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced 2 tbsp finely chopped rosemary 50g toasted pine nuts 50g grated Parmesan cheese sea salt and freshly ground black pepper • Preheat the oven to 120°C. Cut the tomatoes into quarters, remove the seeds and place in a single layer, cut-side up, on a baking sheet. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with the sliced garlic. Season with salt and bake for about 2 hours, until semi-dried. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. • Once cool, put in a blender or food processor with the rosemary, pine nuts and Parmesan. Pulse-blend to roughly chop, then gradually add the oil until you have a slightly chunky consistency. Season to taste and serve.
Thyme and cobnut
Serves: 4 Preparation time: 20 minutes
300g fresh cobnuts (or hazelnuts) 150ml olive oil, plus up to 50ml if required 50g grated Parmesan cheese 15g picked thyme leaves sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Remove the husks and shells from the cobnuts and then weigh out 100g of the nuts. Put in a food processor or blender along with 150ml of the oil, the Parmesan, thyme and seasoning. Pulse-blend until you have a slightly chunky consistency. • Add a little more seasoning if you like, and if required, up to 50ml more olive oil to get to the desired consistency.