Money Saving Meals

Diane’s perfect pesto for schools with a nut-free policy

Friday, 16 April 2010

Because peanut and tree nut allergies can be life-threatening and because children with these allergies can sometimes react even to a trace of them, many schools have become peanut and tree nut free.

Here at Bondi Public School we are 'nut free,' so I had something of a dilemma with so much basil growing in our kitchen garden and a passion for making pesto with the children. In the end we used lightly toasted sunflower seeds (to bring out the flavour) instead of pine nuts.

We served it on grilled bread spread with ricotta cheese and froze the leftovers in ice cube trays to use later in the year for adding to soup, pasta and pizza recipes. Everyone loved it.

With so much basil growing in our school's kitchen garden, we had to make pesto. But like many schools today, we have a nut-free policy, so we made it with sunflower seeds instead of pine nuts. We served it on grilled bread spread with ricotta cheese and froze the rest in ice cube trays to use later in the year for adding to soup, pasta and pizza recipes.

Nut free basil and parsley pesto

Preparation time: 12 minutes

2 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 1/2 cups of firmly packed basil leaves
1/2 cup parsley leaves
1/3 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, chopped roughly
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat a small non-stick frying pan on medium heat, add the sunflower seeds and cook for about 2 minutes until golden, stirring (don't let them burn). Tip into a small heat proof bowl and set aside.

Place the basil, parsley, sunflower seeds, cheese and garlic in the bowl of a food processor. Process until finely chopped - like a rough paste.

Add the oil gradually through the chiute while the motor is running.

Tip the pesto into a bowl and mix in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste if you wish.