Carrot pesto for pasta

This is my first post for many months! We went overseas in September and I came back pregnant, sick and in no mood for cooking! I couldn't even look at my foodie magazines for months! They would come in the mail and I piled them up to read when I was feeling better. Then there was late pregnancy and I felt too tired to cook, then the birth and the crazy tired 12 weeks that followed! Now my daughter Lennox is only waking once in the night I feel a bit more human and ready to experiment again....

This raw carrot pesto is a great dish - so tasty while being quick and easy to prepare. It's great for busy mums as the pesto can be made in advance and then all that's needed is to cook the pasta and stir it through! I use wholemeal pasta as it gives an extra nutty depth of flavor to the dish.

I've given measurements for the ingredients, but as with all pestos taste as you go and adjust the garlic, cheese, oil etc as you see fit.

I'm entering this dish in Presto Pasta Nights, hosted this week by Once Upon a Feast.

Carrot pesto pasta

Ingredients:

2 carrots

2 cloves garlic

1/2 c roasted cashews

1/2 c parmesan

1/2 c parsley

1/4 c rice bran oil

salt

pasta

Method:

1. Peel and chop the carrots and put in a food processor with the chopped garlic, cashews, grated parmesan, and chopped parsley.

2. Process then add rice bran (or other mild) oil to form a chunky paste.

3. Add salt to taste and extra garlic/cheese/cashews etc as required.

4. Cook wholemeal pasta,drain then stir the pesto through.

The Best pasta

Right it's time to put on some photo's if I want people to actually read this blog! so here goes....

Well, it's not quite where I had planned it to be but it's there so it's a start!

This is on our local mountain, Mt Taranaki (or Egmont as it says on the map, but i've never heard a local call it that since I moved here 6 years ago!).  Anyway this is on a tramping trip on Waitangi weekend in February.  It was around 3 hours to this hut.  So anyway, after such a long (mostly uphill) walk we needed food. Pasta.  I grow my own delicious heirloom tomatoes in summer and preserve whatever we don't eat for later in the year - I refuse to buy a tomato or tomato sauce for that matter!  Anyway, along with sauce I also make loads of pasta sauce to bottle, plain chopped tomatos, relish and freeze some for later.  

On this trip I took a jar of pasta sauce, cooked up some pasta and lentils, mixed them all together and dinner was served.  Haha it's great how good things taste out in the fresh air when you've really earned them!

Pasta sauce

1.  Chop an onion and a carrot finely and saute in oil over very low heat until soft.  Add 2 cloves of chopped or crushed garlic and cook for a minute more.

2.  Add chopped tomatoes - a can if that's all you have or maybe 6 - 10 fresh ones depending on size, along with 1 tsp brown sugar, a splash of balsamic vinegar (add a little extra if preserving the tomatoes as this will stop the top exploding!)., a sprinkle of dried herbs (one or more of basil, oregano, majoram, thyme or mixed herbs) and 1-2 T tomato paste.

3.  Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally until the mixture thickens slightly - around 20 minutes.

4.  Use as is or with lenitls, tuna etc added, bottle or cool and freeze.

Enjoy, i'm off to practise some food photography!