Pass the Pesto!

I was thinking earlier about the fact that I hadn't written on this blog for a while. The problem is, every time I've thought of something to write about, it was food-related. But today it occurred to me that my intended reason for starting this blog was so that the things I was thinking about 'would be written'. And I have been thinking about food a lot lately. More specifically, as Mr Scribetur and I are currently considering a move which might result in reasonably tight circumstances, I've been thinking about how best to make good meals, but without spending too much.

I fear I don't have much patience for the approach of articles such as this one, which imagine that cheap cooking as a student involves only beans, eggs, or mince. Of course, I'm setting up a straw man here; although when I went to university  I was certainly given a small paperback book of student meals that had, I think, an entire section devoted to cooking with baked beans, there has been a recent shift in attitudes to student/budget food, with one self-proclaimed student chef, Sam Stern, rising to mild celebrity through providing rather more practical recipes for aspiring chefs pressed for the space, time, and range of ingredients required by some of Gordon Ramsay's more complex recipes. (One of my all-time favourite meals is his game pie, which my Mum makes at New Year, but unfortunately game pie is only budget if you're willing to do a bit of poaching...) 

At the end of the day, I think the thing about cooking on a budget is that you have to decide what it is you can put up with, because having just one very cheap meal a week can help save up for something a bit more exciting later in the week. Over the past year or so, mine and Mr Scribetur's go-to for this has been pesto pasta: the type you can buy in a small jar that does two meals easily, with some cheap olives chopped up and cheese on top. We have even had 'pesto pasta weeks', where, if we wanted to save up for a luxury, we would have pesto pasta for every other meal. From the ridiculous to the sublime, we spent the money saved on a nice bottle of whisky. Those were a few drams well-earned!

Unfortunately, I have to admit that it's got to the point where I was a bit tired of the above culinary concoction. Pesto pasta seemed to me like one of those things that is perfectly edible, and fills you up, but it's fairly neutral on the food-enjoyment scale. It isn't bad; it just isn't the kind of thing you'd ever cook for a visitor. 

Then, this week, Mr S asked me to get some food from the supermarket (having a bike, I, alas often end up being the one going into town for the shopping, as it takes half as long as walking...!), including, for one recipe he was doing, basil leaves. It seemed a bit inefficient to make from scratch something that could be bought in a jar for £1.50, but, nevertheless, I collected together the other ingredients required for home-made pesto pasta - pine nuts, and a cheap equivalent to parmesan (in this case, Grana Padano). Olive oil we had at home. The final result was this:

Combined with 200g of linguine, some more pine nuts, and a sprinkling of cheese, the result was surprisingly impressive, if I do say so myself. Certainly it tasted absolutely nothing like Sainsbury's own-brand pesto, and was a meal that was genuinely enjoyable. Certainly a bit - though not a lot - more effort than opening a jar, and probably a pound or two more. But still a very cheap meal, and also one that I wouldn't mind eating quite regularly. Also - and maybe this is just me - blending things can be very therapeutic...

I used this recipe, although I think I ended up using about half of the amount of olive oil suggested. The recipe did enough for two well-sauced plates of pasta, with about half spare for another time. So, if you're tired of baked beans or store-bought pesto, but want to save money, I would definitely recommend a bit of home-made pesto!

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P.S: The glass that the pesto is pictured in is something which gives me an inordinate amount of pleasure: it used to contain nutella. I love the fact that you can buy nutella in small jars that, once washed, make completely respectable tumblers. It's like you can eat chocolate spread and save money on glassware all at the same time...!