Pesto Pasta Recipe - Quick & Easy - Amazing Flavor - Family Favorite. (2024)

FAQs

How to jazz up pesto pasta? ›

Additions - Some roasted or fresh cherry tomatoes would be delicious, I like to add fresh basil leaves to the top too. Pesto usually has pine nuts but you could add some extra toasted ones into the sauce. To add some greens you could mix through some chopped fresh spinach.

Garlic is a traditional component that livens up the pesto with aromatics and makes it taste a whole lot more interesting. Don't skip it.

Pesto Sauce

This fresh and fragrant pasta sauce is served uncooked, so choose a pasta shape that won't overwhelm it. Similar to oil-based sauces, pesto is served best with longer cuts of pasta, like the corkscrew shape of Fusilli. Pesto works best with Bucatini, Capellini, thinner Spaghettini, and Fettuccine.

Upgrade with a drizzle of olive oil

Olive oil can give store-bought pesto a much-needed boost — especially if you have a nice extra-virgin or infused variety (such as basil or garlic) on hand. Furthermore, you don't have to add much to make a difference.

To upgrade your favorite brand of pesto, turn it into a rich cream sauce by sauteing onions, garlic, seasonings, heavy cream, and shredded cheese. You can customize to your tastes by swapping onions for shallots, grated parmesan for shredded asiago, or a sprinkle of fresh herbs.

Acid in the form of vinegar or citrus juices can make a pesto taste less bitter and could even enhance the flavour of the sauce at the same time. In low concentrations, salt can be used to suppress bitterness, which is why people have been adding tiny amounts to coffee for decades. Always go easy to start with.

PESTO SHOULD NEVER BE “COOKED”. If you cook Pesto Sauce, you change the make up of the fresh basil and cause it to turn darker in color. It is best to warm it up and use it at room temperature. If it needs to be thinned out, you can do so by adding a little water, chicken stock, cream or white wine.

Most pesto recipes call for Parmesan cheese; we often use Romano which has a stronger flavor. Basil pesto recipes often call for pine nuts, but you can easily substitute walnuts.

A slice of bread goes with pesto pasta. Pair this pasta with Rosemary Olive Oil Bread or No Knead Focaccia. Veggies. Sauteed Zucchini Recipe, Roasted Mushrooms, or Roasted Broccoli and Carrots would be scrumptious paired with this pasta.

What do Italians eat with pesto? ›

Italian Tradition

Pesto is the perfect sauce to enjoy with a dish of trofie (the traditional Ligurian short pasta), lasagna, potato gnocchi or as a topping for a bowl of minestrone.

Pesto, on the other hand, flourishes best when paired with thinner noodles, such as spaghetti and linguine, and with shapes that have plenty of twists, grooves, curls, and troughs. Fusilli is not only one of the most well-known pasta shapes; it's also the UK's most popular and our ultimate shape to use with pesto.

As a very rough guide, your pesto should weigh about 2/3 the weight of the dried pasta you are cooking. So, for a standard, single serving of 75g of dried pasta, we think that 50g of pesto is about right.

Almost all the jarred pestos you find in the supermarket will have been pasteurised to not only ensure that they can last a long time unopened, but so they are perfectly safe to eat straight from the jar. There is no need to heat pesto, although too many people do.

Summer soups tend to be broth-based and full of seasonal vegetables, which makes them a natural pairing with basil. The other ingredients in pesto, such as garlic and lemon, often go in soups anyway, and the pine nuts (or other ground nuts) add a touch of body to the soup. Plus, a swirl of pesto is just plain pretty!

Simply cook chopped garlic cloves in a bit of warm olive oil (not hot!), and add cooked spaghetti (reserve some of the cooking water to add later if necessary). Stir to combine and finish off with a handful of fresh chopped parsley, and grated parmesan cheese. Easy peasy and so delicious!