How to make the best pesto pasta at home?
Making that perfect pesto pasta is not very difficult. In fact, many people fear the idea of making this “variant” of pasta at home. Well, simple tricks can improve the quality of your dish by leaps and bounds. For instance, you should always opt for fresh basil leaves. Nothing can replace the fresh basil in your pesto pasta sauce. It changes the final taste of your dish dramatically. Likewise, you need to handpick the right type of oil. Most of the time, olive oil does the trick. High quality olive oil can make your pasta shine.
Now, let’s get into the heart of our easy pesto pasta recipe.
- Calorie: 199.4 kCal (per serving)
- Yield: 1 Pack (serves 6 servings)
- Total time: 17- 20 minutes
Ingredients for making pesto pasta.
- 2 cups of basil
- ¼ cup of toasted pine nuts toasted
- 4-5 tablespoon of olive oil
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 ½ tablespoon of minced garlic
- ½ cup of parmesan cheese
- ½ tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp pepper
- Salted Water
- 16 oz of bucatini spaghetti
- Baby tomatoes, fresh basil, parmesan cheese for garnishing
Directions for preparing pesto pasta
1. You need to prepare the pasta. For this, the package instructions have to be followed. Regardless of the pasta variety, you need to make use of salted water for cooking the pasta. Once the pasta is cooked, you should not rinse it. Instead, drain the water, transfer content to a clean pot, and cover it with a lid. Now, leave the cooked pasta aside.
2. Place a pan in medium heat. Ensure that the pan gets hot. Heat the pine nuts in this pan, keep stirring the pine nuts occasionally. Once the browning happens, turn off the heat and let the pine nuts cool down.
3. Spread 2 tablespoon of olive oil, and the basil leaves into your food processor. Blend the ingredients together. They need to be combined, but not in the form of a paste. As you blend, scrape the sides and blend till all the ingredients are incorporated.
4. Add cheese, lemon juice, pepper, garlic and pine nuts into the blender. Blend again, till you reach the desired consistency.
5. Finally, add pepper and salt to the mix.
6. Now, you need to bring all the ingredients together. For this, transfer the warm pasta to a clean, serving dish. Add the pesto sauce onto the pasta. Spread the sauce evenly over the pasta. Continue mixing, and stirring the pasta with the pesto sauce.
7. Sprinkle pine nuts on the pasta. If you are a fan of cherry tomatoes, don’t forget to dice and place it on top of the pasta. If desired, you can add fresh basil to your pasta too.
8. The pasta can be served warm. Or, you can store it in the refrigerator and serve cold.
Nutrition Information ( per serving)
- Protein 2.4g 5% DV
- Cholesterol 1.1mg
- Carbohydrates 2g 1% DV
- Sodium 20mg 1% DV
- Fat 21.1g 32% DV
