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Pasta Al Pesto

pasta al pesto in a white bowl

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Simple and tasty, can you ever beat pesto pasta, or Pasta al Pesto? It's so good and easier than you think.

Ingredients

Units Scale

To Make The Pasta

  • 200g dried pasta
  • mini mozzarella pearls, to serve
  • cherry tomatoes, to serve

To Make The Pesto

  • 100g pine nuts, toasted
  • 100g basil, handful of leaves reserved
  • 200ml olive oil
  • 1 garlic clove (optional)
  • 1 lemon, zest and juice
  • 1/2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 70g parmesan
  • salt, to taste

Instructions

  1. Add all of the pesto ingredients to a blender and blitz until smooth. Taste the pesto and see if you need to add any salt, you may find it’s salty enough from the cheese. Decant the pesto to a clean jar.
  2. Bring a medium pan of water up to a boil, add the pasta and then lower the heat cooking for 2 minutes less than the packet instructions. When cooked, drain the pasta, reserving a little pasta water.
  3. Add 3 generous tablespoons of your pesto to the pan, followed by 1 tablespoon of the reserved pasta water, mix to combine.
  4. Tip the pasta into the sauce and warm together before dividing between two pasta bowls.  Top with mini mozzarella pearls each if you like. Garnish with more basil leaves, cherry tomatoes. Season and drizzle over your best olive oil.

Equipment

Notes

How to store the pesto: any pesto you don’t use can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container or jar. It should last a week or two. If you want to keep it longer, I would advise adding it to a jar and levelling it out so it’s nice and flat. Then add some olive oil over the top to create a layer that essentially seals the pesto. This will stop it going bad as fast. The olive oil will solidify a bit in the fridge but once mixed into the hot pasta when you use it, it’ll melt.

 

How to store basil: any leftover basil should be stored in the following way to keep it alive and strong for a good week. Slice the ends off the basil stalks and place in a small glass or mug in around 1cm of water. Take a clean sandwich bag and cover the basil with it, pulling the bag down the glass. Then seal the sandwich bag around the glass/mug. Leave at room temp.