Camden New Journal - Food&Drink: Hey pesto! Just whiz up some nuts for a quick, versatile sauce

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The Review - FOOD & DRINK- Cooking with CLARE
Published: 11th October 2007

Don’t leave all the hazelnuts to the squirrels!

Hey pesto! Just whiz up some nuts for a quick, versatile sauce

Clare Latimer gathers the ingredients for tasty dishes

THIS week’s nutty ideas occurred to me for two reasons. First, while walking my dog on Primrose Hill I have noticed heaps of hazelnuts lying on the ground, and surprisingly only the squirrels are interested.
It’s amazing to me how parents rush out with bikes and footballs but miss showing children such things as these little natural treasures.
And then a friend popped her head round my shop door to let me know that her allotment had done really well this year. She had just made some lovage and almond and rocket and walnut pesto and said how delicious it had turned out.
Inspired by this news, I went off to the shops and gathered a variety of nuts and fresh herbs and rushed straight home and got out my little electric Kenwood blender – it’s superb for a small amount of ingredients, so ideal for pesto and things like Thai spices.
I had a great evening trying different combinations and, when done, I put the mixes in ice cube trays. When frozen, I plopped them out into small plastic bags and labelled them with ingredients and date.
Now I can just take them out for any idea that comes to mind – a spread for toast that is served with a pâté, added to the base of a tart such as tomato and goats’ cheese, added into a pastry mix, stirred into a vegetable dishes or just added to pasta.
Here are just two ideas to get you going.

Scrambled egg with chive and cashew pesto
You could spread the pesto on toast and then grill for a few minutes and serve with plain scrambled egg or even add a layer of smoked salmon between the toast and egg.
Crispy bacon would also accompany this well. Serve with a tomato salad.

Ingredients
Serves 4
Handful fresh chives
1 clove garlic, peeled
Handful cashew nuts
Rock salt and freshly ground black pepper
Little grated lemon rind
About 2 tbsp virgin
olive oil
4 slices brown bread
4 eggs
2 tbsp milk
25g butter.

Method
Put the chives, garlic, cashew nuts, salt and pepper, lemon rind and olive oil into a small blender and whiz until smooth. Add little more oil if necessary. Set aside.
Toast the bread. Put the eggs, milk and butter into a small non-stick saucepan and put on a medium heat and stir continuously until the egg is just starting to cook.
Reduce the heat and stir well until the eggs are runny but creamy. Remember to stop cooking the eggs early as they go on cooking in the saucepan and you may end up with bouncy egg!
Stir in some of the pesto and add a little salt and pepper if necessary. Taste to get the flavour correct.
Spoon out onto the buttered toast and serve.

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