Halloumi pasta orecchiette with tomato-almond pesto

Combine toasted almonds with fresh basil, juicy cherry tomatoes and golden sultanas for a twist on classic pesto to stir through orecchiette

Ingreadient:

• 200g mixed colour cherry tomatoes, halved
• 60g flaked almonds, toasted
• 20g basil, torn
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 red chilli, sliced
• 50g pitted Nocellara olives, sliced
• 30g golden raisins, roughly chopped
• 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 300g orecchiette
• 225g halloumi, cut into small cubes
• ½ lemon, juiced

Directions :

1. Put the tomatoes, almonds, most of the basil, the garlic, chilli, olives and raisins in a small food processor. Drizzle in 2 tbsp of olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper. Pulse to create a chunky pesto.
2. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Cook the orecchiette according to pack instructions, reserving the cooking water. Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in the pan and cook the halloumi cubes on all sides until golden. Remove from the pan.
3. Pour the pesto into the pan with a large splash of pasta cooking water. Transfer the pasta straight into the pesto pan, mixing well and adding more pasta water to emulsify the sauce. Squeeze over the lemon juice, season well, stir through the halloumi and sprinkle with the left-over basil.