Pesto Pasta

Pesto pasta is a quick and easy plant-based meal your family will love, on the table in fifteen minutes its full of flavour.

Course: Pasta

Cuisine: New Zealand

Keyword: pesto pasta, pesto sauce, pesto pasta nz. how to make pesto sauce

Diet: vegetarian

Servings: servings

Calories: 584kcal

5 from 1 vote

Cook your spaghetti as per the packet directions. Do not discard the cooking water.
While your pasta is cooking prepare the pesto sauce.

Toast your pepitas. I do this by heating a skillet to medium heat. Then add the pepitas and toast until they are lighlty browned and begin to pop. Once this happens immediately remove the pumpkin seeds from the heat by popping them in a dish or bowl. i.e. don't leave them in the skillet.
Place all the ingredients for the pesto sauce in a food processor (excluding the olive oil). Pulse until the ingredients are finely chopped.
Turn your food processor onto continuous, while the food processor is running gradually add the olive oil, and continue processing until all the oil is added and a smooth consistency is reached.

Once your pasta is al dente, drain reserving about ½ a cup of the pasta cooking water.
Transfer the drained pasta to a bowl, add the pesto sauce and approximately ¼ cup of the pasta water, and toss the pasta so that it is well coated with the pesto sauce. If the pasta is a little dry, add more of the reserved pasta water until the pesto pasta has the consistency you want.
Enjoy

Remember to reserve the pasta cooking water. Adding the pasta cooking water to the pasta and pesto makes the pasta slurpier and more delicious. The gluten in the pasta water helps the pasta sauce coat and cling to the spaghetti.
Use this same pesto sauce recipe to make a delicious pesto pasta salad with cherry tomatoes
This pesto sauce is also lovely with grilled veggies, meat, fish or chicken
Dried spaghetti: I tend to make this dinner with spaghetti or fettuccine, but you can use any pasta shape including Fusilli, farfalle, rigatoni or penne pasta. I use dry pasta, but you can of course use fresh pasta as well. You can also toss the pesto sauce through zoodles (zucchini noodles).
Pepitas (pumpkin seeds): I like making my pesto with pepitas as they are economical but you can substitute these with pine nuts, sunflower seeds, almonds or walnuts.
Basil and spinach leaves: I like to use a 50:50 blend of basil and spinach but you can of course make a pure basil pesto sauce or spinach pesto sauce. You can also substitute some of the basil and spinach leaves with arugula. You just need 2 cups of green leaves.
Extra virgin olive oil: I like the flavor EVO adds to the pesto sauce but you can use your favourite oil, including avocado oil.
Optional: I don't tend to add garlic to this recipe, but you absolutely can add one or two cloves of garlic to the pesto sauce.