Spinach Pesto Pasta
A lazy evening is for quick portions of pasta. But what if you are done eating white, red, pink sauces and you do not have any basil at home? Voila! Spinach pesto to the rescue.
I am a die-hard spinach fan. Yet I was hesitant to try this recipe as spinach sometimes brings in that bitter taste. But trust me, even if you dislike spinach in general, you are going to be a fan of this quick and easy recipe soon. Even the little munchkins would love it. This can be a quick family dinner or even lunch!
You can even store this spinach pesto and use it as a dip, sauce, filling, spread….Oh! There is no limit!
So let’s get started! Spinach Pesto Pasta….here we come.
Yield: 2 generous servings of pasta OR 1-1 ½ cups of Spinach Pesto
A perfect pasta fix for lazy evenings with the goodness of spinach and creaminess from the nuts. SO YUM.
Ingredients:
2 cups Pasta
1 ½ cups fresh spinach leaves
¼ cup Almonds (soaked and peeled) or Cashews (soaked) + a few for garnishing or Walnuts
2-4 Garlic cloves
½ cup grated parmesan or ¼ cup any grated cheese
6-8 Cherry tomatoes (or 1 normal size tomato)
3 tbsp cream
3 tbsp +2 tbsp olive oil
Chili flakes and herb seasoning
Salt + Black pepper to taste
Procedure:
Bring water in a large pot to boil. Add spinach and let it boil for 5 mins. We need to retain that color!
Take the spinach leaves out in an ice bath and leave it there for another 5 mins.
Simultaneously cook your penne pasta (follow the instructions on the packet).
Now place the spinach leaves, nuts, garlic cloves, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
Stream in the 3 tbsp olive oil while pulsing until smooth.
At this point, you can either store this in an airtight container for 1 week or follow next steps and put together a delicious pasta.
Drain your pasta and keep it ready.
Chop your tomatoes (if cherry tomatoes then chop in 2 pieces, if normal-sized tomato, chop in 4 pieces).
Add olive oil and cook your tomatoes on medium to high flame. Add chili flakes and herb seasoning as per taste. Take it off the stove.
Now in a different or the same pan of it’s big enough, take 1 tsp of olive oil and add the freshly prepared pesto pasta. The flame should be low otherwise it will splatter. The quantity of pesto here depends on your liking. I like to add more and have more sauce surrounding my pasta.
Now add the cream and stir it in.
If you did not add parmesan in your pesto, then add grated cheese at this point and stir it in.
Finally, switch off the stove and stir in your pasta until it’s coated with the green goodness.
Serve it in a bowl and garnish it almond shavings or any nuts chopped fine.
Enjoy and do not forget to tell how you liked it! Also, it tastes good with my Almond flour garlic bread recipe.