Day 16: squeaking and crunching

This bubble I have been living in when it comes to food awareness - and indeed so many other aspects of life I'm sure - never ceases to amaze me. The simple concept of pesto and beans is hardly revolutionary, but nevertheless, I still never thought of it, which surprises me as I love steamed baby corn tossed through with butter and pesto. For this I have my school friend’s mother to thank, who introduced me to it many moons ago now, and in fact converted me to become quite the fan of plain baby corn. When I make this I simply use jarred pesto; the desire to make my own completely eluded me and, if truth be told, I have even stopped buying jarred pesto because I would use only half of the jar and then naughtily (although innocently) forget about the rest. As you know, food wastage is something I do not condone, especially if guilty of it myself. Solution? Learn to make pesto myself!

So, when looking through the books for the next recipe to choose for the 365-day cookalong, I was pleasantly happy to stumble upon Nigella’s Green Beans with Pistachio Pesto in Nigellissima. My use of green beans is limited to probably four ways; simply boiled plain with butter; boiled and then served with butter and a minced raw garlic clove; lightly boiled and then fried in butter with bread crumbs; and finally - my favourite - included in any and every Thai curry that I make. It is the squeakiness of green beans that I find a little unsettling, but when cooked tender in a curry they become soft and drenched in aromatic flavour.

Nigella’s Green Beans with Pistachio Pesto

There is absolutely nothing for me to dislike in pesto and - relevant to this pesto in particular - pistachios secure a firm third place in my top-five favourite nut. Salted or plain, toasted or not, I love their colour. For anyone wondering, brazil nuts take second place and almonds hold the gold trophy in first place.

I believe we often never try new ways of eating simply because they are unfamiliar to us and we have no idea how laborious, or time consuming they will be to make. It turns out that homemade pesto - or certainly this homemade pistachio pesto - presented neither anything complex nor time consuming, and was a doddle to make.

I will return to this recipe repeatedly, and will likely even try some alternative nut-types too!

Flavour musings

Firstly, the contrasting grassy-green of the beans and the vibrancy of the pistachios looks just delightful. I don’t even know how to describe the colour of pistachios, considering pistachio-green itself is a colour. Anyway, the sharp saltiness of the parmesan, the anise fragrance from the basil and the resinous crunch from the pistachios, raised green-bean-eating to an entirely new level for me.

Expansion in the kitchen does not need to be time consuming or expensive, and anyone with a passion for food will be deeply inspired by even these simplest of dishes.