Pistachio, chilli and lemon spaghetti

Today’s Mmmm Monday recipe is a midweek pretty easy dish. Use as much chilli as suitable.

Prep 5 min
Cook 12 min
Serves 4

Salt
100g fresh basil leaves picked
1 garlic clove, peeled
100g pistachios
2 red bird’s eye chillies
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
80ml olive oil
400g spaghetti

Put a large pan of water on to boil and add two teaspoons of salt for every litre of water.

In the meantime, finely chop the basil, garlic, pistachios and chilli.

Run the knife repeatedly over all the chopped ingredients, until they’re very, very fine, then transfer to a large bowl.

Add the lemon zest, three tablespoons of lemon juice, the olive oil (if you like, use a little more, to loosen the sauce) and half a teaspoon of salt (or to taste), and mix well.

Cook the pasta in the boiling water for seven minutes (or according to packet instructions), until al dente.

Scoop out 100ml or so of the pasta water with a ladle, then drain the pasta. Add the cooked pasta to the pesto bowl, toss to coat thoroughly, adding a little pasta water, if necessary, to loosen the sauce, then serve.

This is an edited version of a recipe that appeared in the Guardian from Meera Sodha