I picked a handsome bowl of basil tonight and made my poppet’s favourite pasta—Pesto. My Auntie Caterina, who lives near Genova taught me how to make it when I visited in 1999. And I want to stress one thing: there is NO cream in pesto. So when I hear people say that they love Pesto because of the cream I feel very sad. Pesto is a blend of basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil and Parmigiano cheese (although I prefer Pecorino). Salt and pepper are optional. The irony of the visit to Italy is that by the time we got back home my partner was diagnosed with Coeliac disease and we had to start eating gluten free pasta. This was a disaster 10 years ago as the gluten free pasta was hideous but today you can hardly tell the difference.