Summertime … of course just at the very word THIS is draping it’s sumptuousness into your mind right now …

You know those days when it’s so hot, so still, so languid …. that you really absolutely cannot bear the thought of the oven being on for even a second?

Today was one of those.

I did brave the hob though - just for five quick minutes mind you, to boil the fresh penne pasta.

But the delicious courgette pesto is all raw so no unnecessary over-heating going on over here at all.

This is pretty much exactly as one of my very favourite food writers, Diana Henry, shared it, but I made a couple of tiny changes to it.

Her original recipe is HERE.

And I’m also putting the link to her books HERE too as I’m a huge fan so why not share the love?

I used her recipe as a starting point but didn’t really measure what I was using, so here’s kind of what I used to make a very lovely simple summer evening dinner for two …

1 courgette, peeled (mostly) and grated using a box grater

1 small garlic clove, peeled, squashed and roughly chopped

small handful of pine nuts, perhaps around 20-30g

handful of basil leaves, torn

small green chilli, chopped (optional, totally optional, I just like a bit of chilli in things)

salt and pepper

a little slosh of olive oil

Put everything into a blender or food processor and whizz up to a lovely soft paste. I like this to be quite soupy so added a little water too.. Basically, just make it perfect for you and exactly as you like it. You might need to stop a couple of times to push the mixture down the sides and get it all mixed up together.

Pour into a shallow dish and scrape all the mixture from the sides of the food processor or blender.

Add a good handful of freshly grated parmesan and some salt and freshly ground black pepepr.

Stir this lovely fragrant mixture together.