Rocket, Chilli and Basil Pesto Recipe- Making The Most Of Leftovers

Making good use of this week's leftovers- My Rocket and Chili Pesto

I love Italian food and pasta is a staple part of my diet as a cyclist as my body has a high need for carbohydrate. Pasta is hard work on it's own and needs a great tasting sauce to really make it a good meal. That's why I love Pesto. It adds an intense flavour to pasta dishes. It's easy to buy jars but there's nothing better than making your own pesto- Especially as you can add some elements from the fridge to give it some additional flavour intensity like chili peppers for some fire and rocket for a peppery kick.

Fusilli Pasta laced with my Rocket, Chili and Basil Pesto

Having made some pizzas recently and having been given some excess herbs from a neighbour I thought it was an excellent opportunity to combine them all for this simple pasta sauce. It would have been great in some savoury muffins or glazed over some fresh fish but after a heavy weekend of cycling I needed some hardcore carbohydrates to aid my recovery.

We always have a big piece of Parmesan cheese in the freezer ready to use and some oil oil in the cupboards for any which way we choose to use it

Pesto Ingredients- Everything I needed for my leftovers pesto

Rocket, basil, chili, garlic, Parmesan cheese and olive oil

100ml olive oil
1 medium red chili
About 50g of wild rocket leaves
About 30g of basil
2 cloves of garlic
About 30g of chopped almonds
50g of Parmegiano Reggiano cheese

How I made my Rocket and Chili Pesto

Pesto is arguably one of the easiest pasta sauces to make.I simply threw the wild rocket, basil, almonds and olive oil into a deep sided bowl from my hand blender. I then grated the garlic, chili and Parmesan cheese into the mixture. I finished off by blending the mixture together with my electric hand blender to form a thick puree which will form your pesto sauce.

Pesto is best laced into a thick ridged pasta like fusilli as pictured below as it forces it's way into the ridged to give your mouth a great intensity of flavour.  

a simple pesto with the week's leftovers is easy and very healthy. Mine has lots of rocket and chili which were left in the fridge