Home-made pesto

I have tried making pesto a few times and the thing is, it always ends up a bit different each time. That was starting to bother me but actually now I don't mind. One thing I am learning, is not to follow a recipe religiously, since the ones I have found haven't been brilliant. Instead I try to follow my taste buds on this, so forgive the approximate measures, but it is probably just best to adjust it to taste.

Ingredients

• Handful of basil leaves (fresh or frozen)
• small handful of pine nuts (pinjam siemen) - around 40 g...
• 2 cloves of garlic
• olive oil -in the words of Mr J. Oliver... you'll need a few good glugs - around 50-100 ml
• pecorino or manchega or pecorino cheese - I usually grate this in to taste, maybe 20 g
• salt and pepper to season

Method

Combine all the ingredients and blitz with a hand mixer. If the mix tastes very bitter then add a bit more oil and cheese and pine nuts. In the end the pesto should resemble a grainy mixture and may taste slightly over seasoned, but this is fine. The thickness of the pesto can depend on the purpose, whether it is to go on meat or mixed with pasta. If it is too thick, thin it out with a bit of olive oil. If I am adding it to pasta then I usually start cooking the pasta and in the meantime I make the pesto - it's that easy and it doesn't need to be cooked either.

I usually eat this with pasta, tuna and sweetcorn with some more cheese grated on top. It's something I used to eat in my student days and it's a great meal when I can't be bothered to make too much of an effort.