One of my favourite things about the neighbourhood we live in here in Brisbane, is the farmers market that sits right on our doorstep on Saturday mornings. When living in London, the desire to buy the weekly shop at a market was greatly outweighed by the necessary 30+ min journey just to get to one. Here however, between 6am to 2pm each week I can walk 200m from our building to Davies Park, grab an excellent coffee (I mean, the coffee is excellent everywhere here) and get my fruit, veggies, meat, fish and eggs all for the equivalent of around £50. To put that into perspective, it works out to about half of what I was spending per week back in Blighty.

So as you may have guessed it, this delightful side dish came about as a result of a recent market haul. I grabbed a beautiful bunch of carrots - tops and all - with the intent of simply roasting them. But looking at those tops I thought there’s got to be a way of utilising them, instead of them going to waste. A fiend for pesto shall always be just that, and I quickly blitzed those leafy greens up together with the necessary ingredients that I seem to always have on hand (pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and of course parmesan) while those multicoloured carrots were roasting to sweet perfection.

This recipe makes enough pesto to use another time - try stirring whatever you have left through pasta, topped on eggs or as a base for your next sandwich.

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Roasted Carrots + Carrot Top Pesto

Serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients

1 large bunch of carrots with tops

2 tablespoons pine nuts

10 tablespoons mild/light olive oil

50g parmesan, grated

1 garlic clove

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200c (180c FAN)

2. Remove the tops from the carrots and place in an roasting dish. Drizzle with two tablespoons of olive oil, and season generously with salt

3. Roast in the centre of an oven for 25-30 minutes or until tender

4. While the carrots are roasting, get to work on the pesto. In a blender add the carrot tops, garlic, pine nuts, a pinch of salt and the remaining 8 tablespoons olive oil and blitz until combined.

5. Transfer the pesto to a bowl and stir in the grated parmesan. Add more salt as needed, and an extra glug of olive oil if you see fit.

6. Once the carrots are roasted, serve with a few dollops of pesto.

Everyone has that one recipe that they go back to time and time again, and for me it's pesto. Perhaps it's the ease in throwing it together, or the fact that its traditional use is with my favourite carb, but there is something about its herby, garlicky notes that keep it firmly on my go-to recipe list. 

What I love about pesto is its versatility. Every green herb or leaf that I throw at it seems to work in its own right, with unfamiliar flavour profiles lending themselves to different parts of the palate, adding an element of discovery each time I try a new combination. This particular pesto is made using chives as well as basil, resulting in luxuriously garlicky undertones while keeping it classic. Use it on pasta like I've done here, or dot it onto ricotta on toast - it is all good.  

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CHIVE + BASIL PESTO

Makes 200g 

Ingredients

30g fresh chives

20g fresh basil leaves, stalks discarded

3 tablespoons pine nuts

1 garlic clove, minced

6 tablespoons mild/light olive oil

30g parmigiano reggiano, finely grated

Method

1. In a food processor, add the herbs, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and a good pinch of salt and pepper and blend.

2. Scrape the pesto mixture into a bowl and by hand stir in the grated parmesan. Add an extra glug of olive oil for good measure.  

3. Cook your pasta of choice until al dente (allow 150g per person), reserving a little of the cooking water before draining. Add 1 heaped tablespoon of pesto per person, along with a splash of the reserved water.

4. Serve immediately. 

Updated 17 Oct 2021

I’ve been making a mental list of things that I want to start doing when I move out into my own home. On this list there are projects and purchases, little gestures that I truly believe will make my life that bit more beautiful. I imagine becoming less reliant on supermarkets for our fruit and vegetables, instead taking the time each week to visit the local farmer’s market, butcher and fish monger. I see myself hand-selecting flowers and having an array of pretty vases to showcase them in. I picture making my own nut butters, almond milk and ice cream. There are other small things that I’d like to have too, like fresh orange juice daily, artisan bread (made by myself if I’m feeling particularly adventurous), interesting magazines and beautiful books for the coffee table and of course, pasta Sundays.

The latter is highest up on that list and probably the most likely to happen, no matter how much I fancy myself as a cross between Heidi Swanson and Rachel Ball.

I’m sure that traditionally pasta on a Sunday should be had with a slow-cooked meat sauce like ragù, but being a pasta fiend and predominately herbivorous a simple pesto is my go-to sauce for any celebration of carbohydrates. The kale adds an element of richness (and health benefit), but I couldn’t give up the basil altogether, however you can easily sub the basil and go all kale if that’s how you like to roll.

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Linguine with Kale Pesto

Makes roughly 300g pesto, serves 2

Ingredients

60g kale leaves, stems discarded

40g fresh basil leaves

1 clove of garlic

8 tablespoons mild/light olive oil

3 tablespoons pine nuts

2 tablespoons walnut halves

40g parmigiano reggiano, finely grated

30g pecorino romano, finely grated

250g linguine

Method

1. To make the pesto, in a food processor add the kale and basil leaves, garlic, walnuts, pine nuts, olive oil and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper and blend.

2. Stir in the grated cheese by hand. Add an extra glug of olive oil for good measure.

3. Cook the linguine according to packet instructions. When ready, drain and reserve a 1/4 cup of the pasta’s cooking water. Add 2 heaped tablespoons of the kale pesto to the hot pasta and add enough of the reserved water to loosen the sauce. Serve immediately.

Store the pesto in an airtight container covered with a little olive oil in the fridge. Keeps for a couple of weeks.