How To Make Aubergine Pesto

As long as you’ve got a food processor, making your own pesto is a doddle; the quantities for each of those recipes will fill a jam jar and keep in the fridge for about a week. It’s hard to be more precise about the amount of oil you need to use; I’ve said ¼ pint (125ml) each time, so add the oil very slowly until you think the pesto has reached the right consistency. (Your probably won’t need this much.) Swap the ingredients around to suit yourself, try different flavoured oils and use whichever combination of nuts, seeds and herbs you like.

1. Step 1:

   Cut the aubergine into fairly thick slices and soak in a bowl of very salty water for about 20 minutes, then drain, rinse well and dry with kitchen paper.

2. Step 2:

   Heat half the quantity of oil in a large frying pan and preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6 (200c).

3. Step 3:

   Fry half the aubergine slices in the hot oil for a few minutes, turning once, then transfer to a small roasting tin. Add the remaining oil to the pan and fry the rest of the aubergine, again transferring the cooked aubergine to the roasting tin.

4. Step 4:

   Snip the rosemary up and sprinkle over the aubergine then add the crushed garlic to the roasting tin and put itin the oven for 20-25 minutes until the aubergines are completely soft and cooked through. All the oil that was soaked up during frying should now be swimming around in the tin.

5. Step 5:

   Remove the tin from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes while you get the rest of the ingredients ready then put the aubergines and all the oil into a blender or food processor with everything else and blend or pulse to make a coarse paste, scraping the pesto down from the sides every few seconds.

6. Step 6:

   Pack the pesto into a clean jar and pour another 2 tsp of olive oil on top.

7. Step 7:

   Store in the fridge for a week.