Pesto

 The basil has been going great guns in the garden, so it must be time to make pesto! Good quality pesto in the shops is so expensive to but, it is far cheaper and really easy to make your own.

 The one ingredient in pesto that is ridiculously expensive is pinenuts. I tend to use cashews in mine instead, much cheaper and just as yummy.

  Pesto is a great thing to have floating round in the freezer. I freeze mine in icecube trays - each cube is about a tablespoon of pesto. I also freeze tomato paste that is left over in the same way.

  The best way to make pesto is in the food processor.

  Pesto

2 c packed basil leaves
1 t crushed garlic
1/2 c olive oil
1/4 c grated parmesan
1/4 c toasted salted cashews (or pinenuts or walnuts)

Blend everything together until they form a smooth paste. Pesto oxidises and goes brown very quickly, so freeze or cover with a layer of olive oil in a jar in the fridge. So many uses!

I am off to Mia's daycare this week to make pesto and pasta with the kids for the second year in a row. They loved it last year!

Pumpkin and Silverbeet Lasagne: Sorry no picture!

 I made this for dinner the other night and promptly forgot to take a picture of it looking all golden and delicious just out of the oven! By that stage it was too late as it was either all in our tummies or in a container in the fridge for Nathan's lunch. You will have to take my word for it that it is very yummy, and everyone in our family likes it despite it being without the meat sauce Serve it with salad and fresh bread or garlic bread.

Pumpkin and Silverbeet Lasagne

1/2 small pumpkin or squash, de-seeded and chopped into large chunks
10 leaves of silverbeet, with the stems cut out (by this I mean you need to cut into the leaves and remove all of the tough stem)
2 T chopped fresh basil
1 egg, lightly beaten
250g tub cottage cheese
1 c grated cheese + extra for the top
Jar of tomato based pasta sauce
Lasagne that doesn't need pre-cooking

1. Cover the pumpkin (leave the skin on) in water and boil about 15 mins until soft. Leave to cool.
2. Scoop the flesh off the skin and mash.
3. Steam the silverbeet for 3 - 4 mins (I do this over the pumpkin at the end of its cooking)
4. Place the silverbeet in a sieve and press it down with a spoon to remove excess water. This is important to ensure that the mixture isn't too watery. You will be left with a very small lump of mashed dry silverbeet!
5. Add the silverbeet, basil, egg, cottage cheese and grated cheese to the pumpkin mix. Also season to taste. Mix together well.
6. Grease a flat oven dish. The one I use is about 40cms x 20cms.
7. Layer lasagne noodles, then half of the pumpkin mix, then half of the pasta sauce. Repeat and top with grated cheese. I use dried lasagne noodles that soften during cooking, san remo makes wholemeal ones that we usually buy.
8. Bake at fanbake 200 C for 20 - 25 mins until golden and cooked through.