Basil pesto that breaks the rules

Is there any food that better sums up summer than homemade pesto, made from fresh-picked basil, with a good kick of garlic and the decadent, melt-in-your-mouth flavour and texture of pine nuts.
 

I’m obsessed with pesto. This year I’ve grown six clumps of basil so I can make enough pesto to last for months after our frosty Canberra nights wipe out the poor plants. That said, not a single jar has lasted more than a couple of days so far – it’s just so good; on pasta, on home grown tomatoes and by the spoonful.
 

The recipe is spectacularly simple. Fill your blender with basil, chuck in a couple of handfuls of pine nuts, and add one to six peeled garlic cloves depending on taste and likelihood of breathing on another person after eating said pesto. Season to taste with salt and pepper then pour over a seriously good glug of extra virgin olive oil. Blend for a minute or so, scraping down the sides if needed until you’ve got your preferred consistency.
 

At this point you’ll usually lightly stir in a handful of parmesan, but I no longer bother as (le mie scuse più sincere to Italian readers) I’ve decided that pesto is far better without it! With so much good fat in the form of the pine nuts and olive oil, a parmesan-free pesto is just so much creamier but lighter.

If worried about the cost of pine nuts, you can use other nuts like almonds, macadamias or cashews. You won’t get the same divine result but it will still make a great sauce. I picked up a kilo of pine nuts without having to re-mortgage my house by buying them from an online Australian company, vastly cheaper than those tiny packets found in the supermarkets.
 

Any Italians still reading may want to look away now, because here comes confession numero due: I prefer pesto on zucchini pasta more than pasta tradizionale – and this comes from someone who’s eaten pesto spaghetti in the mother country.

Zucchini pasta is made by putting a fresh zucchini through a spiralizer, a gadget

that turns it into ribbons. You can alternatively shave the zucchini with an apple peeler, or just dice it. Fry it for just a minute or two in olive oil so it doesn’t get soft, toss the pesto through and it’s ready to serve. The flavour and texture are entirely dissimilar to real pasta but give it a chance – zucchini pasta is nutty and satisfying without weighing you down.
 

If that’s too much too bear, try spooning the pesto over the largest, reddest, meatiest tomato you can find. Whether the tomato is raw, roasted or grilled, the pesto will bring out the sweetness and flavour like nothing else.

I’d love to hear from you – how do you like your pesto?