This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement. Earlier this year, I visited Liverpool’s iconic Italian restaurant, Casa Italia, for the first time and had the best meal of my life.
Advertisement Advertisement Did you know with an ad-lite subscription to Bucks Herald, you get 70% fewer ads while viewing the news that matters to you. The vegan Genovese consisted of penne pasta with vegan pesto (without parmesan), oat cream and fresh basil, and I straight away decided it was the nicest meal I have ever had, let alone the nicest pasta. The bright green colour of the pesto made it clear that it had been made fresh and it wasn’t until trying it that I realised I’d never had proper Italian pesto before, even before I was vegan.
Tasting absolutely nothing like the shop-bought jars I usually have, it was a beautiful consistency and had a really strong basil taste. Since visiting Casa Italia several months ago, I had been planning on attempting to make my own pesto at home but, as is life, I kept procrastinating and opting for easier meal options. But, after getting my hands on the award-winning Citizens of Soil extra virgin olive oil, I decided it was finally time to put my chef’s hat on.
While I did look at a couple of recipes, I decided to just make the pesto based on taste, adding ingredients as I went along rather than following strict measurements. Taught by d.