Fiery Pesto

Ingredients

100-150ml extra virgin olive oil

100g lightly roasted pine nuts (heat dry pan and toast nuts until lightly golden)

1 garlic clove

2 red chillies

1 heaped tsp dried red chilli flakes

1/2 tsp salt

5 sun-dried tomatoes

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Handful of ripped/shredded basil leaves

Directions

I use a pestle and mortar for best flavour, but of course you could use a food processor

Grind the garlic first with a pinch of sea salt, and then add the chopped chilli, basil leaves, dried chilli flakes and chopped sun-dried tomatoes

Grind this until an almost paste forms, then add 1/3 of the pine nuts and lightly crush this, the pines nuts mush super easy, and make a creamy paste. Then add the rest of the nuts, and these will stay whole or you could smooth them down too. I like the texture.

Add the 50ml of the oil and slowly grind the paste, slowly adding 20-30ml of oil at time, until a chunky pesto forms, add salt and pepper and the lemon juice and see how it tastes, if you wish add more salt and drizzly olive to loosen until it is at your desired consistency

Bottle up, and drizzle with a layer of olive oil and this will keep in fridge for 2 weeks or so.

PS. If using a food processor, keep the settling low and and addd the oil a little at a time

Enjoy this with your favourite pasta, with some chopped salad