Red Pesto

This Christmas we are making red pesto for our festive Palmiers, but you can serve it all year on crostini canapés or with crudités, on pizza or vegetable tarts, or as a pasta sauce.

Ingredients:

• 50g blanched almonds, toasted
• 75g hazelnuts, roasted, and skins rubbed off
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 roasted red peppers, roughly chopped
• 30g sundried tomatoes, rehydrated, then chopped
• 30g sun-blushed tomatoes in oil
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp apple juice concentrate
• 1 tsp tomato puree
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. In a food processor or in a pestle and mortar grind the pine nuts and hazelnuts roughly and then decant them into a bowl and set aside.
2. Puree the garlic with a pinch of salt in a little of the olive oil, then add the rest of the ingredients and enough olive oil until you have a rough puree.
3. Stir in the nuts and add more lemon juice and apple juice concentrate, salt and pepper to taste.

Tips:

• The pesto will keep in the fridge for a week or two so long as the top is covered with a layer of olive oil. You can also freeze it. Freeze in small containers, so that you can take out a little at a time.
• Roasting nuts:

For hazelnuts, pop them onto a baking tray and into a hot oven 200C/Gas 6 for 5-8 minutes until the skins start to split, cool slightly before rubbing the skins off.

For almonds, put them in a small dry frying pan and over a medium heat stir until turning golden then immediately decant into a bowl.