Goats Cheese & Beetroot With Spinach & Chive Pesto - Dell'Ugo Recipe No 12

I am a big fan of the goats cheese and beetroot combo. I am not a particularly big fan of the ready made filled pastas, ravioli, tortellini etc. Often they are pretty tasteless or filled with very cheap and horrible processed meats. Some of them overcook really easily and the fillings drop out when you drain them. Others just end up as a big stodgy mess on your plate.

And the sauce - normally we just used to have tomato sauce or some kind of cheese sauce. I got really bored and sick of those.

But being a big fan of the goats cheese and beetroot combo and the need for a quick meal (these ready made pastas are usually done in 3 minutes) I was drawn to the Dell'Ugo Fiorelli while I was scanning the chilled food section in Waitrose for inspiration.

On the inside of the cardboard packaging there were two recipes. This post is dedicated to the second recipe for the "Spinach & Chive Pesto".

I've never actually made pesto but I liked the sound of this - I love chives and I really like having fresh veg with a meal so I thought I'd try it out. I made it almost exactly as per the recipe but doubled the quantities to feed four people instead of two and didn't use as much olive oil as the recipe called for - 200ml olive oil for 4 people was just so much, it would have been swimming in it! I also didn't have any radicchio so I just used a bag of salad leaves consisting of red chard, pea shoots and lamb's lettuce....oh and I added some balsamic vinegar to the dressing for the leaves.

I'm so glad I gave this a go because everybody loved it and it really is very tasty and pretty quick to prepare too although not particularly cheap. The fiorelli alone is £3.49 a packet and parmesan, olive oil and pine nuts can be pretty pricey too.

Anyway, here is my ever so slightly modified recipe to serve 4 people If you want the original, see below, I've included an image of the recipe card (I notice they don't have it up on their website yet).

Oh, one more thing - we ate a whole box of pasta each. The serving suggestion is one 250g for two people but as a main meal that's nowhere near enough for the gannets in my house.

Dell'Ugo Goat's Cheese and Beetroot Fiorelli with Spinach and Chive Pesto
Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 x 250g Dell'Ugo Goat's Cheese and Beetroot Fiorelli
100g baby spinach
Bunch of fresh chives
100ml olive oil
40g parmesan cheese, grated
2 x cloves of garlic
40g pine kernels/nuts
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
100g bag of salad leaves such as lamb's lettuce, chard, pea shoots
freshly ground black pepper

Method:
Heat a large pan of boiling salted water and quickly dip the chives and spinach for a few seconds so that they soften but are bright green (I use my brilliant Joseph Joseph Scoop Colander for this kind of job!).
Remove from the water into a blender along with the parmesan, pine nuts, garlic, oil and coarsely blend to a paste. Add a good grind of black pepper.
Use the same pan and water you used for the spinach and chives for the pasta (ensure the water's boiling) and cook for 3 minutes.
Drain the pasta in a colander.
Put the pesto in the pan and warm through.
Add the pasta and toss in the pesto ensuring it's well coated - be careful not to cook for too long as it all sticks to the bottom of the pan - I know!
Dish up the pasta.
Dress the salad leaves with the olive oil and balsamic and pile on top of the pasta.