Pesto and Hummus

I am an incredibly fussy eater which has made it difficult for me to find anything - that isn’t some sort of biscuit - to cook that I will eat.

Two things I love however are pesto and hummus. I actually get cravings for Strada’s pesto bread. Whenever I eat there I shovel down a whole basket of the stuff and then have no room for my main. And a favourite snack of mine is brown toast smothered in hummus. Mmmm hot and yummy.

So it seemed obvious to give them both a whirl and see how they turned out. I started with pesto and I think I got the recipe from the Jamie Oliver website.


Pesto

Half a clove of garlic
Sea salt
3 big handfuls of fresh basil leaves, chopped up
1 handful of pine nuts, very lightly toasted
1 generous handful of freshly grated Parmesan
Extra virgin olive oil

Take the garlic, a little sprinkle of salt and the basil and put them in to a food processor and pulse, or use a pestle and mortar and pound them up. I don’t have either of these things so I used my improvisational talents and put a bit of cling film over the end of a rolling pin and hoped for the best. I bashed away and after a while had a nice basily mush which smelt amazing. Of course because I seem to have an actual disability when it comes to reading ingredients I managed to put in a whole clove of garlic rather than half.

I heated a frying pan and tossed the pine nuts about for a while even though I have no idea what they should look like when they’re toasted. Turns out they go brown. They went in my make-shift mortar and got crushed nicely, which took a while but was quite fun and satisfying.

Tip everything out in to a bowl and add half the Parmesan, stirring it in gently and adding enough olive oil to bind it all together. Season with salt and pepper, add the rest of the cheese (why you have to halve the Parmesan is beyond me) and then some more oil, have a little taste and keep adding cheese and olive oil until it meets your pesto standards.

Mine, I think, needed far more basil and a bit less garlic, but is still quite yummy. And I had lots of fun making a pestle and mortar so bonus points for that.


Hummus (no idea where I got this from)

125g dried chickpeas soaked in water overnight
The juice and zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons of tahini
2 cloves of garlic
120ml of extra virgin olive oil
A pinch of salt

I cheated with the chickpeas and rather than being terribly middle class about it and soaking dried ones I was just a bit middle class about it and bought a tin of organic ones from Waitrose and used those instead. For anyone who doesn’t open tins of chickpeas very often be warned that they smell a bit like cat food.

I stuck them in the blender, though you should use a food processor, and added the garlic, lemon zest and the juice, a little bit of salt and the tahini. For anyone like me who’s never really been near any fancy ingredients (which is definitely what I class this as) tahini is sesame seed paste. I completely forgot to buy any when I was shopping and so after an emergency call to someone in Tesco I ended up with what looks like very thick and creamy tahini dressing, and may in fact be just that. Though to be honest for all I know that’s exactly what tahini looks like.

Anyway, whiz everything up together and pour in the olive oil while the blender/food processor is on.

You want the hummus to be smoothish so if it’s still a bit lumpy add some cold water, again while it’s still blending.

Stick your finger in – when the motor is off, obviously – and have a taste. If it’s a bit bland add a tiny bit more salt.

My hummus turned out very, very lemony and a bit runny, I think I’d use less olive oil and only half a lemon and see how that goes but other than that it quite impressively seems like something I would drown pitta bread in.