A tasty light pasta dish with a striking look.
Ingredients
- 350g cooked, peeled beetroot, roughly chopped
- 3 cloves smoked garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- 25g almonds, skin on
- ½ tsp fresh red chilli finely chopped
- 15g Parmesan cheese
- 2 bunches basil ( 25g)
- 50mls olive oil, approx
- salt
- pepper to taste
- squeeze lemon
- 200g dried Tagliatelle
- 2 beetroot, washed, peeled and sliced across
- 20 fresh basil leaves
- extra Parmesan cheese for shaving
- cooked beetroot stalks, cooked and chopped roughly
Method
- Pre heat the oven to 200°C gas 6.
- Wash and trim the beetroot, then cut off the stalks and leaves leaving about 4 cm.
- Wrap tightly in foil and bake in the oven until soft, about 45 minutes, or simmer in salted water.
- Once cooked, remove from the oven and cool, then peel and chop up into small pieces.
- Next, place the sliced beetroot into a pan of boiling water, re boil and add the tagliatelle cook until slightly underdone, then strain well. Add a touch of oil to the cooked pasta so they do not stick together, keep warm.
- Place the cooked beet, garlic, tom puree, oregano, almonds, chilli, cheese, basil and half the oil into a stick blender and blitz until you have a smoothish sauce, add more oil if needed.
- Taste and add salt, pepper and lemon to taste.
- Place the cooked warm pasta into a large bowl, add the pesto and stalks and mix well.
- Serve with deep fried basil leaves and shavings of Parmesan.
