Our next Staple Food Challenge participant is Sophie! Her Cheshire based food blog, Sophie’s Scran, features amazing recipes, reviews and food related news. She’s one of the most exciting food bloggers in the North West so we were delighted she wanted to take part.
To recap – Sophie is taking part in the Staple Food Challenge that gives our customers, aspiring chefs and influential food writers across the country the chance to guest blog on Bouncebackfood.co.uk and cook a recipe of their choice. The only condition? Their recipe has to include one of Bounceback Food’s staple products that we sell on a ‘one for you, one for society’ basis in support of FareShare UK.
Here’s Sophie’s recipe for Bacon, Pea & Spinach Pesto Pasta!
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Ingredients (serves 4):
Marinade ingredients-
For the pesto:
– 100g pine nuts
– 200ml olive oil
– Big handful of fresh basil stalks included
– 2 big cloves of garlic
– Juice of 2 lemons
– A pinch of sea salt
For the pasta:
– 4-5 rashers of smoked bacon, chopped into small pieces
– 300g organic wholewheat fusilli from Bounceback Food (they make a like for like donation to your nearest food bank!)
– 300g frozen petit pois
– 200g bag of baby spinach, washed
– Freshly ground black pepper
– Shavings of Pecorino cheese, to serve
Method:
Heat a tiny bit of the olive oil in a small frying pan and cook the bacon pieces until slightly crispy. Once cooked, set aside on some kitchen paper to soak up any excess fat.
Roughly tear all the basil including the stems, and peel the garlic. Place them in the food processor along with the fresh lemon juice, pine nuts, olive oil and sea salt. Blend this mixture until smooth and creamy, adjusting the seasoning to your taste. Set this aside in the fridge while you make the pasta. Tip: if you don’t use all the pesto in this serving, it will keep in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Place the pasta into a saucepan with boiling water and cook for 5 minutes, then add the peas into the same pan and continue to cook for a further 5 minutes. Drain the pasta and the peas, then return them back into the saucepan pesto, spinach and bacon.
Gently cook on a low heat until the pesto is warm and the spinach has wilted. Serve in warm bowls and using a peeler, shave a generous helping of the creamy Pecorino cheese and season with freshly ground black pepper. I also served with some garlic bread.
Overall, this takes about 25 minutes to prepare and cook. Enjoy!
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