pesto pasta - fiji style

As a working and swimming mum, i do not have much window from when i get home to cook dinner and have the kids asleep by 7:30 - 8pm at the latest. I am not very good with planning dinners ahead - sometimes I am organised enough to make a list of dinners for the week but I don't often follow them as I end up cooking whatever i am feeling like, whats in the pantry/fridge and how much time I have. One of the things that i do have that is my go to when we are running late and don't want to get takeout - that the girls absolutely love is pesto pasta. I make a big batch and store it in a jar in the fridge for the those days that the girls finish swimming training late and the traffic into Lami is horrendous.

One of the things about Fiji is that we either don't have access to a lot of ingredients or they are very expensive so sometimes this calls for a bit of creativity. For pesto I will compromise on the type of nuts i use as pine nuts is super expensive. I can't however bring myself to compromise on parmesan cheese even though it is even more expensive. You just can't get the flavour from any other cheese - especially the local cheese.

Ingredients

  • fresh basil leaves
  • sundried tomatoes in oil (optional)
  • garlic (in this mixture i used 3 cloves)
  • 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 cup pinenuts
  • 1/2 cup peanuts (skins off)
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • olive oil

Put all ingredients (except the olive oil) into a blender/food processor, blend for about 5 seconds just so that all the ingredients mix and then slowly pour olive oil into your mixture whist the blender is still mixing/processing. Keep pouring oil till you get the consistency you want for your pesto. 


Mix in with your favourite pasta.

local shopping tip:

  • parmesan - IGA, Cost U Less, Joes Farm or Yees Cold Storage stock them.
  • if you don't have any basil growing in your garden, kanamocefiji - you can find them on instagram or facebook 
  • Sundried tomatoes - Cost U Less sells them in a Large Jar which usually lasts us several months
  • Olive Oil - we buy the can in bulk from Cost U Less
  • Pine Nuts and any other nuts - Lazy Chefs, Cost U Less or IGA, Extra Supermarket, Fresh Choice
  • Pasta - any supermarket. Glutten Free pasta - Cost U Less, Fresh Choice or Extra Supermarket - or make your own :)
  • the garlic is available from any supermarket.


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