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Home Cooking and Baking by Sarah Trivuncic

Cobnut Pesto Pasta – and autumn in Walthamstow Village

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If making your own pesto, try this alternative to pine nuts: cobnut pesto. Available in some supermarkets during autumn, cobnuts taste like smooth creamy hazelnuts. They’re a bit fiddly to prepare but the flavour is well worth the effort.

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Cobnut pesto pasta with olives

Walthamstow Village may be short on wide open green space but being Waltham Forest, it’s not short of trees. This is never more obvious than in autumn and especially around St Mary’s Churchyard where there are lots of larger trees and horse chestnuts.

The Ancient House in Walthamstow Village in Autumn Save

It’s time to take Ted conker spotting once more, an easy half hour’s free entertainment spotting fresh glossy balls lying on the ground. One of the best places to do this in Walthamstow Village is in the area in front of the Ancient House and the pathways around St Mary’s Church.

St Mary's Churchyard Walthamstow Village in autumn Save

We’ve been kicking a few autumn leaves around, Ted is very excited by the crunchy noise they make. You see plenty of conkers on the ground in Walthamstow Village near the church.

Cobnuts in their shells Save

Sadly you can’t eat conkers but cobnuts are in season around the same time.  I wish I could claim I’d picked these in Walthamstow Village but they came from Waitrose at Canary Wharf.

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Cobnut Shells removed with nutcrackers

Removing the shells with nutcrackers reminded me of two things; firstly Christmas and secondly an amusing incident with my grandmother.

I once presented my grandma with some fresh chestnuts I’d picked up in some woodland. She put them into the oven to bake when twenty minutes later there was a loud bang: some of them had exploded and made a terrible mess. She was not pleased.

The best part is, I also gave my mother a bag of the same chestnuts and she did exactly the same thing. The lesson here is to score your chestnut skins – or indeed cobnuts – so that pressure doesn’t build up inside from steam cooking the kernels and make them pop.

Shelled Cobnuts Save

Today’s dish of pesto pasta salad can be served warm or cold, it is ideal for making in bulk at parties, indeed it is my usual savoury contribution to short notice gatherings (although I’ve not done it with cobnut pesto).

If you make it with jarred pesto, keep a vacuum pack of olives in the cupboard and toss in some frozen peas, you can make it entirely with store cupboard ingredients.

Bright green cobnut pesto in food processor bowl
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Bright green cobnut pesto in food processor bowl

Today I am making it with Garofalo pasta, received in my Cybermummy goodie bag back in July. It’s a good quality pasta, and one of my favourite dried pasta brands alongside De Cecco.

Cobnut Pesto Pasta
Print Recipe

Cobnut Pesto Pasta

Serves 3-4 as main course, 8 as a side dish at a party

Equipment

  • You will also need a food processor for the pesto

Ingredients

  • 100 g cobnuts in the shells
  • bunch basil save some for scattering
  • 3 clove garlic
  • 100 g parmesan cheese freshly grated
  • 100 ml olive oil
  • 250 g pasta
  • 75 g olives I used green but black is fine too
  • 75 g peas frozen - or green beans

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 170c / gas mark 3.
  • Remove the husks from the cobnuts if you haven't already done so. Score the shells with a sharp knive and bake in the oven for around 15-20 minutes.
  • Allow to cool slightly then carefully remove the shells. I found some came off very easily, others were a total pain. The nuts are quite fragile but they'll get blitzed in the recipe anyway.
  • Put the shelled cobnuts, garlic cloves, cheese and half of the olive oil in the food processor and blitz. Drizzle in the remaining olive oil until you are happy with the consistency.
  • Can be used immediately or keeps several days in the fridge. Can also be frozen.
  • If using the pesto in pasta salad, cook your pasta, drain and dress with a little olive oil. Prepare the other ingredients you are adding i.e. cook your frozen peas, slice your olives and toss into the still warm pasta. Scatter over some torn basil leaves.

Notes

Please note as parmesan contains animal rennet, to make this dish vegetarian you'll need to replace parmesan cheese with a vegetarian hard cheese alternative.

Cobnut Pesto Pasta Save

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