Recipes from a passionate home cook

Tag: basil

Recipe for tomato and pepper red pesto pasta

Red pesto pasta

Pesto is one of those things that truly tastes completely different when it’s homemade as opposed to store-bought. It’s also incredibly quick to make, 5 minutes max, and preparing it is as simple as blitzing some good-quality ingredients in a food processor. Lately, I’ve been somewhat obsessed with all different kinds of pesto’s, as they make for such brilliant and quick weeknight homemade pasta sauces. So fresh and extremely rich in flavour. You can also experiment ...

Spicy tomato and red pepper bruschetta with basil recipe

Spicy tomato and red pepper bruschetta

Nothing screams summer quite like delicious Italian antipasto, and bruschetta must be one of my absolute favourites. Thick slices of toasted ciabatta bread, the most high-quality sweet tomatoes, fresh basil leaves and lots of garlic makes the perfect classic bruschetta and is without a doubt an ultimate all-time favourite, though this recipe for a spicy variation with dried chilli flakes and red bell pepper makes an incredible alternative for that classic tomato version. Tomato and red bell ...

Pesto pasta salad with green asparagus and sun-dried tomato recipe

Pesto pasta salad with asparagus and sun-dried tomato

We have been enjoying really lovely hot and summery days in London recently, and on warmer days, pasta salads are often go-to meals for me. While British asparagus are still in season, I wanted to incorporate these in some recipes last week, and together with delicious homemade basil pesto and some intensely flavoured sun-dried tomatoes, they made the perfect ingredients for my latest pasta salad recipe. This pesto pasta salad with asparagus and sun-dried tomato recipe is based on a very ...

Recipe for aubergine parmigiana, melanzane alla parmigiana

Aubergine parmigiana towers

I cannot think of a better Italian vegetable recipe than aubergine parmigiana, or melanzana alla parmigiana in Italian, but while the flavour is truly incredible, it isn’t always the most elegant dish to plate. Sure, as a main course this can be beautifully served in a huge oven dish in the centre of the table, but – unless your version holds together perfectly – on a plate as a smaller starter or a side dish it almost always looks a little underwhelming. So, I started thinking of a ...

Recipe for oven-baked tomato orzo pasta

Oven-baked tomato orzo pasta

Orzo pasta is so versatile that I went through a period of eating it multiple times a week. Simply boiled with a delicious sauce, as the base for a pasta salad or as a substitution for rice in a speedy risotto (also called an orzotto), but my recipe for oven-baked tomato orzo pasta is perhaps the fastest and easiest way to enjoy this fantastic and truly underestimated pasta shape! As a big fan of this ingredient, you can imagine how excited I was when I first found a recipe in The Green ...