You don't care much for pasta, yet you have a pasta machine...?

I never buy jars of pesto. I always make my own. We have a little mini-chopper electric gizmo that's great for blitzing the garlic, basil* and pine nuts, then it's a matter of mixing in the Parmesan and extra virgin olive oil. I like to be in control of ingredient quality and freshness. It's somewhat distressing to see how a great big bunch of basil turns into a teaspoonful!

There's a Gino d'Acampo variant that adds sundried tomatoes in oil to the above ingredients. I like to leave that one a bit knobbly. It makes a superb bruschetta topping, sprinkled with a few baby basil leaves and Parmesan shavings. The best bruschetta bread I've found in this country is the Crosta & Mollica pane Pugliese, imported from southern Italy. Another pesto version by Jamie Oliver isn't really like the usual idea of a pesto at all, though he calls it one. He uses olive oil, basil, Parmesan, blitzed almonds (you can use skin-on ones) and halved cherry tomatoes. He puts everything in a big bowl and scrunches it all up like mad with his hands. It's fantastic with spaghetti, beautiful and rubbly. My ordinary green pesto goes really well on top of a simple risotto bianco. Keeping it simple cuts down the chance of mistakes. That's my kind of cookery!

*Absolutely the only time I ever blitz garlic, and I use just half a clove!