Perfect with pasta and a treat on toast
A twist on pesto using parsley, walnuts and Cheddar.
“I think I prefer this English version of pesto even to the classic Italian basil one. It’s lighter and more versatile,” says Prue Leith. “It’s good with pasta, on pizza, or just as flavouring for salad dressing, or indeed to serve with grilled chicken or lamb chops.”
Prue Leith’s tomatoes with English pesto on toasted focaccia recipe Ingredients
2 squares of focaccia
4–6 big slices of ripe tomato For the pesto:
20g walnuts
30g bunch of parsley
1 garlic clove, crushed
30g Cheddar cheese, finely grated
75ml rapeseed oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas Mark 6. Put the walnuts on a baking tray and into the hot oven for five minutes to toast. Or toast them in the microwave for five minutes, giving them a stir halfway through.
2. Chop the stalks of the parsley, which have a lot of flavour you don’t want to waste, with a sharp knife. (Chopping in the machine can result in stringy bits – better to start by hand.) Put them, the parsley leaves and garlic into a blender and chop briefly.
3. Then add the Cheddar and walnuts and blend again. At this point, you will need to add the oil to loosen the paste. When everything is in, blitz to a smooth-ish sauce and season with salt and pepper.
4. Toast or grill the focaccia pieces to warm them through, then spread with the pesto and overlap the tomato slices on top.
Tip: The pesto will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge if stored in a jar with a little more oil on top to keep the air out. But it will lose its brilliant colour, sadly. To make it vegan, use vegan Cheddar or any other hard vegan cheese.
■ Bliss On Toast by Prue Leith is published by Bloomsbury, £14.99, photography by Haarala Hamilton.