I love making pasta. It comes in different shapes and sizes, you can make fresh pasta from scratch or used dried pasta, make varying types of sauces depending on what pasta shape you choose, make ravioli, serve it solo or as an accompaniment in chicken picatta or chicken parmesan and the tales of pasta go on. Today, I’m revisiting the classic pesto. Pesto is an herby sauce made of basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic, salt, cheese and olive oil. This has been so extensively used as a pasta sauce that some people practically associate it with pasta or even assume it to be a type of pasta. But you can also use pesto is used in breads, buns, paninis and lots of other savoury applications (and hey, did you know that includes pasta!).

Typically, you would simply blend the aforementioned ingredients together, thin the sauce with pasta water and toss in some spaghetti. There are, however a few ways to bring the best out of pesto to create a more memorable meal experience. Firstly, you can start by blanching the basil leaves. This will help prevent oxidation and will keep your pesto bright green. Next, toast the nuts and garlic! I cannot emphasize on how much of a difference this makes! Not only will you get a warm nutty flavour but you are also able to transform the raw garlic taste into a sweet, roasted one. And lastly, manage your timing! This might sound risible but you do not want your pesto sitting for too long waiting for the pasta to cook. Nor do you want it the other way round till the pasta becomes overcooked and mushy. An exemplary situation would be: Making the pesto while the pasta cooks, adding some pesto to a pan, thining it out with pasta water and adding slightly undercooked spaghetti to get an al dente result. And of course, the extra cheese.

Under normal circumstances, I would have made basil pesto but Cook’s Country had a July cooks’ challenge asking bloggers to make their version of pesto di prezzemolo (parsley pesto). While their recipe (in the picture) calls for walnuts instead of pine nuts and anchovies for added flavour (which tastes divine!) I modified my recipe here to something I would have done with ingredients I usually have at home.

Parsley Pesto

Pesto (makes about half cup):

• 1 cup parsley
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup cashews
• 1/2 a lemon
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Parmesan cheese

Blanch the parsley in boiling water for about 10 seconds and shock in an ice-bath. Pat dry. In a pan, toast the cashews until slightly golden. In the same pan, roast the garlic until golden brown in some olive oil. Add the dry parsley, cashews, garlic, lemon juice and some grated cheese to a food processor. Blitz until there are no bits of parsley leaves. Add the olive oil and blend.

To finish:

• Slightly under cooked spaghetti (or any other pasta)
• Reserved pasta water
• Parmesan cheese

Spoon some pesto into a pan on a medium flame. Add a little pasta water and cooked spaghetti. Cook until al dente. You may thin out the sauce by adding more pasta water. Finish with grated parmesan cheese.