Pesto + Pasta = Pesto Pasta Get your hands on the biggest bunch of some fresh basil. Whip up a quick Pesto Sauce and swirl it with the pasta of your choice. That’s it. If you feel like adding some cherry tomatoes or any other veggie, like today we had some asparagus shoots, even better. Pesto Pasta with a little veggie boost… Quick and easy meals are the only way to go on busy work nights. Just home from a long work day and needing to feed yourself, or a whole family, is quite a daunting task. Save this Pesto Pasta for such days. All you need is 20 minutes in your kitchen. OR even less if you already have a jar of pesto sauce in your refrigerator…
This Pesto Pasta Recipe is for You, if
- You are a fan of pesto sauce and looking for how to use it in a meal. All that fresh, vibrant nutty pesto sauce envelops any pasta deliciously.
- If you’re in a hurry. As mentioned before, it’s a very quick and easy meal to put on the table.
- This is an ideal meal prep dinner idea where you can make the pesto a day, or even 5-6 days, in advance. It’s ideal for using any leftover pasta from another meal, too.
- It refrigerates well, and can be eaten at room temperature, without reheating, as pasta salad.
- The basic pesto pasta is like blank canvas, and can be customizable in so many ways by adding different veggies or protein. We will give you plenty of ideas later down the post.
- Homemade pesto sauce is better, but you can use good store brand pesto for even lazier, or more hectic days.
How to Make Pesto Sauce
If you really want to make this dish with real, vibrant and fresh pesto flavors, homemade is way to go. Making homemade pesto sauce is so quick and easy. We have a whole post just dedicated to this legendary Italian sauce on GypsyPlate. Simple click Pesto Sauce.
Pesto Sauce Ingredients
Fresh Basil – Fresh, happy looking basil, not mopey and sad. If you don’t have it in your garden or kitchen already, you would find it a plenty in a farmer’s market or local produce store in summer time. Another way to find it is those potted plants in your grocery store. Chop him up for tonight, then let him grow for more pesto. Wash gently and pluck the leaves off the stem. Pine nuts – These give a nutty, buttery flavor to your pesto. Check out our collection of favorite pine nut recipes. Fresh whole garlic cloves – You only need a couple of them here, just enough to to get that sublime pungent note, not enough to ward off vampires. Remember, you can always add more if you want, but can’t take it out. Cheese – When it comes to cheese, it’s up to you if you want to use Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano. Just one rule of thumb to follow is that pesto need hard, salty, aged cheese. Nothing creamy or soft here, you want some substance, chunkiness and a little texture. Olive Oil – Some use extra virgin, some use a lighter olive oil. I use both, but today my mood and my pantry said extra virgin. Make sure you are using good quality oil for the best flavor. Coarse Salt – Season it with your heart, and be sure to taste and adjust. Lemon juice – A dash of this tanginess in your pesto really elevates it to the 100th degree.
Four Quick Steps
Once you have your Pesto Sauce ready, Making Pesto Pasta is a breeze…
Pesto Pasta Ingredients
Pesto Sauce – 1 cup of the above home made pesto sauce, or store bought pesto sauce. Pasta – You can use any larger pasta of your choice for this recipe. Today we used bucatini noodles, but spaghetti, penne, rotini, bow-ties and rigatoni will work great too. Veggies – Asparagus and cherry tomatoes today. For garnish – Pine nuts, fresh basil leaves and parmesan cheese. Olive oil Salt – To taste.
How to Make Pesto Pasta
Pesto Pasta Variations
- Play with your Pesto: In place of basil, or along with basil, add spinach, arugula, kale, parsley, or cilantro. It would give a great varied taste to your pesto, depending which herb or greens you use. Great substitutions for pine nuts are walnuts, almonds (we would recommend blanching the almonds), pistachios or cashews. You want to know our favorite replacement for pine nuts? More buttery than pine nuts? Macadamia nuts! Boy, that’s yum pesto! You can even use different hard cheeses in pesto. How about some asiago? All sounds great and gives a little different flavor to your own homemade pesto sauce.
- Add or Minus the Veggies: You can serve this pesto pasta minus any veggies. It’s a great tasting combo just like that, simple pesto sauce swirled in with your pasta. On the other hand, so many veggies can be delicious here. Mushrooms, zucchini, peas and green beans are great contenders.
- Add in protein: Simply sauté some chicken or shrimp to add in to the recipe. Ground chicken or ground turkey can fit in well too, giving that extra protein power.
- Make it creamy: A dash of cream is so so good here, making it a creamier and richer dish.
- Give it a little heat: Add 1/4-1/2 tsp red chili flakes to the mix. It’s yum.
Leftover and Storage
Store leftover pesto pasta in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days. We do not recommend freezing the pasta, but you may freeze the pesto sauce, and it freezes beautifully! You can freeze in large batches if need be. But we like to freeze the sauce in smaller portions so we can use it several times, even when summer is past and basil is not readily available. For this, freeze the pesto in ice cube trays and, once frozen, take them out and store these cubes in a freezer bag, then freeze them till you are craving for pesto time. You can reheat pesto pasta in a microwave until warmed through. You may need to add a little olive oil or water if the pasta looks dry. Some people might prefer to eat it at room temperature, or straight out of refrigerator, as a pasta salad. It’s that easy of a meal. So there you go, one more easy pasta recipe out of the GypsyPlate kitchen. Make your life simple and tasty with all of these easy dinner ideas. The next time you see that fresh, good looking basil, grab it to make an addictive pesto sauce for your pasta meal. Yes… or you can go ahead and grab that good brand of ready made pesto sauce, too, for an even easier meal. You deserve it to not slave too much in the kitchen.
Pesto Pasta, on our Gypsy Plate… enjoy!
Try these other great pasta recipes!Fettuccine AlfredoSpicy Sausage PastaPasta alla NormaGround Turkey PastaClam LinguineJambalaya PastaSalmon PastaMediterranean Pasta
