The first thing that caught my eye during Wednesday vegetable shopping was a bunch of fresh, deep green basil exuding beautiful aroma. That went straight into my basket along with gorgeous hass avacado, tender courgettes, baby spinach, bright yellow musk melon and all things wonderful!

Back home, I reached out for the pine nuts to make my usual basil pesto and then decided at the last minute to add it to the aioli I was going to make later in the day. End result was a creamy, tangy and full of basil flavour aioli used as a dip for crunchy salted potato crisps shared with a friend over a bottle of wine.

Ingredients:

Cupful of washed and chopped basil leaves
Two egg yolks for the mayonnaise
A few cloves of minced garlic
Juice of half a lemon
Cupful of vegetable oil
Salt and pinch of sugar to season
Method:

Blend the basil, garlic, lemon juice and egg yolks in a mixer
Add the oil in a slow drizzle and pulse till creamy. It’s alright to stop and add small quantities of oil and continue pulsing.
Scrape into a serving bowl, season well and dig in!