Nocciola Pesto Pasta by Nicola Hazel of Jannettas Gelateria in St Andrews

In 1908, Nicola’s great grandfather Bennett Jannetta started the family business at 31 South Street, St Andrews as a soda parlour and tobacconist. Her grandfather Charlie, at the same time as maintaining the ice-cream side of the business, expanded into fish and chips by opening a restaurant next door.

Then in the late 1960s and 70s, Nicola’s parents expanded the range of ice-cream flavours dramatically, refurbishing the shop into a modern Italian Gelateria. Nicola and her husband Owen have now been running the business for over 21 years. Their aim is to carry on the family tradition of making the best quality gelato.

It’s apt that Nicola’s household loves hazelnuts - nocciola - particularly given their surname is Hazel! The family very much enjoys this hazelnut pesto pasta – it’s such a quick and easy recipe to make and extremely tasty, perfect for vegetarian friends too.

http://jannettas.co.uk

Time to prepare: 30 minutes

Time to cook: 40 minutes

Ingredients: Serves 4

250 grams of spaghetti

1x garlic clove

100 grams of hazelnuts (toasted and without skins)

100 grams of parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon of olive oil

2 tablespoons of milk

1x lemon (zest and juice)

Grated parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to season

Chives to garnish

Method

  1. Cook your pasta until al dente, following the instructions on the packet albeit fresh or dried. For this recipe, I like to use either linguine or tagliatelle.
  2. Place the hazelnuts, parmesan, olive oil, garlic, lemon (juice and zest) and milk into a food processor and blend until you have a grainy paste consistency, adding some pasta water to give a looser consistency if you deem it necessary.
  3. Drain the pasta and immediately add the pesto, and stir until the pasta is well coated.  
  4. Serve immediately, having garnished with grated parmesan and chopped chives.

In association with Taste Communications.

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