My friend Gemma made a huge bowl of this insanely delicious pasta with - as she called it - ‘posh pesto’ for our book club the other night.
A few things …. firstly our book club is really a ‘food and wine club’ with added (optional) book! It’s so much fun, always always a great night. The host chooses the book and we then all eat and drink and try to remember to discuss the book at some point in the evening.
If you’re interested, Gemma's book choice was as good as her food - it’s also very short and can be read in one sitting. It’s The Yellow Wallpaper and I’m just going to copy and paste from one of the editions available on Amazon UK:
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER is a story by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. It is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women's health, both physical and mental.
I think we talked about this book more than we’ve talked about any book yet!
Back to the pasta though … we had it that night with tagliatelle but I’ve since made it twice with spaghetti.
If you’d like the original recipe, you can find it HERE.
I have to say I loved it so much I asked for the recipe whilst still eating my first bowlful!
To make this the way I did for two people, you’ll need:
200g spaghetti (every time I make spaghetti I weigh it by how it feels in my hand, I never trust it but when I then weigh it to check it is always EXACTLY the right amount!)
a pack of fresh basil (the actual recipe says 50g for two people but I only had one 15g bag and it was still delicious, so entirely up to you if you want to use more)
1 small garlic clove
a small handful of shelled pistachios (it should have been 50g but I didn’t weigh them and just guessed it might be about a small handful)
1 small red bird eye chilli (this was still quite hot, so of course adjust how much chilli to your own taste or use a milder chilli)
zest of half a lemon
juice of half - one lemon (to taste)
olive oil
Put a pan of water on to boil and add a good big pinch of salt (maybe a teaspoon).
While it’s coming to the boil, start making the pesto by first finely chopping the basil. I did this separately to the other chopped ingredients to stop it going mushy.
Put the chopped basil into a big bowl or serving dish and then start to finely chop the garlic, pistachios, chilli and lemon zest.
This is really easy with a big flat knife, so you can squash the ingredients and then chop, but if you don’t have a cleaver-style knife then (a) put one on your next birthday list - it is SUCH a useful knife to have and (b) use any knife you like but the bigger the easier I find.
Oh! The water is probably boiling by now so add in your pasta and cook according to the pack instructions, or to your liking, or for nine minutes (as I did).
Once everything is chopped finely, add back the basil and chop it all together again, just for that last bit of fineness and also to make the basil really part of the mix.
Tip it all back into the bowl and add lemon juice - start with the juice of half a lemon but taste and add more if needed (mine did).
Add a good slug of a good olive oil and a little salt.
Stir it all together and taste again to make sure you’re happy with it or you want to make any adjustments.
When the pasta is done, remove a ladle of the pasta water into a mug, then drain the spaghetti and add to the bowl of pesto.
Stir and mix thoroughly, adding a little of that reserved pasta water if it needs loosening at all.
Serve. As is.
Personally, I don’t think this needs anything else to go with it, except for good company and a glass of red wine …
