Basil pesto and lemon pasta

Photographer Greg Cox introduced me to Pasta Grannies on YouTube, a series which features Italian nonnas sharing their recipes. This sunshine pesto was inspired by Nonna Maria’s winning recipe.

Serves 6

Preparation: 20 minutes Cooking time: 8 minutes

• 400g spaghetti

• 1 tin (390g) artichoke hearts, drained PESTO

• 1 fresh lemon

• 1 garlic clove

• 40g (half a packet) flat-leaf parsley

• 10g fresh mint

• 80g (1 packet) fresh basil

• 100g toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped

• 500ml grated Parmesan

• about 50ml olive oil

• salt to taste

1 Make the pesto Using a vegetable peeler, peel the lemon in long thin strips with as little of the bitter pith as possible; squeeze out 60ml of lemon juice. Place the peel together with the herbs, half of the nuts and ¾ of the cheese in a food processor. Gradually add the oil and lemon juice to taste and process into a stiff pesto. Taste, season with salt and set aside. Nonna Maria used the juice and peel of 2 lemons, but it was too tart for my taste. Judge for yourself if you want to add more.

2 Boil the pasta in salted water until al dente (usually 8 minutes). Spoon some of the hot pasta water into the pesto and pulse again until smooth and runny enough to coat the spaghetti – but not too watery!

3 Drain the pasta and mix immediately with the hot pesto. Stir through and dish into bowls. Cut the artichoke hearts into quarters and divide them between the pasta bowls along with the remaining Parmesan, freshly ground black pepper and nuts. Garnish with some fresh herbs (we used borage blooms).