Step 1

Place everything in a chopper and blitz to your heart's content.

Step 2

Scrape down the sides after a few seconds, and stop when you are happy with the consistency and the smoothness. I like to bite into bits of pine nuts, tomatoes and basil, so leave it semi coarse, but it's up to you.

Step 3

Taste and adjust the seasoning. Be generous with the freshly ground black pepper. Also, it may taste salty to you but it needs to be salty. In fact, the 1/2 tsp of salt is probably not enough if you are going to stir it through pasta. You will have to add more salt when actually using this red chilli pesto in another recipe.

Step 4

Store in a sterilised container, covered in a layer of extra virgin olive oil for about 1 week. It will definitely last a week. Use as described above, as you would basil pesto.