Creamy pesto pasta
Summer is finally here in this part of the world, with the temperature slowly but surely creeping up as the days pass by. Living where I do, not far outside London, our summers can get pretty uncomfortable and humid when the weather decides to take a turn for the warmer. Our flat is relatively new and therefore very well insulated, which makes for a toasty nest in the winter but a decidedly hot place to be at this time of the year. When the internal temperature is getting close to the thirties (that’s the high eighties in old money) the last thing I really want to do is turn the oven on and contribute to the problem. This is where the one-pot dinner comes into its own, and here’s one of my favourites.
Last year we thought we’d try something new and ordered a couple of Gousto meal boxes to see what they would be like. One of the recipes that we selected was for a creamy pesto pasta, served with roasted tomatoes and green beans, and it recommended that the final dish be served with the remaining lemon from the sauce squeezed over the top. Let me tell you, it was an absolute revelation! The two flavours pair so well together with the sharp, zingy lemon contrasting with the creamy sauce - I knew I had to hang on to the recipe card and try it again.
This is my interpretation of that recipe - for a more “authentic” take on the pasta al pesto Genovese (essentially Italian for “pesto pasta”) I add sliced waxy potatoes to my pasta and serve with green beans and broccoli (why not add more green to an already very green dinner?). The sauce is made very quickly and simply in a food processor while the pasta cooks; the traditional pesto ingredients of basil, pine nuts, garlic, hard cheese and olive oil are joined by a good dollop of soft cheese and a squeeze of lemon to give you a very green, creamy and fragrant sauce.
The rest of the dish comes together all in a single pan, albeit a large one! Once the potatoes are sliced, the green beans are trimmed and the broccoli cut into florets (stalks and all), the pasta and potatoes are boiled together in salted water with the vegetables joining the party near the end of the cooking time. Then it’s just a case of stirring in the sauce and voilà! Dinner in a single pan in half an hour, with hopefully not too much heat having escaped into the surroundings. If you’re even more strapped for time, or you don’t own a food processor, you can get similar results by replacing the sauce with half a jar of ready made pesto, some soft cheese and lemon juice (see below for more details). This pasta keeps well as leftovers and could also be eaten cold if you fancied some al fresco dining. I really love this green feast of a pasta dish, and I hope you do too!
Creamy pesto pasta
Serves: 4 | Total time: 30 mins | Source: Gousto/vicki cooks veggie
Ingredients
250g (9oz) dried pasta (I used casarecce for mine but any pasta shape will do)
400g (14oz) Charlotte potatoes
100g (3.5oz) green beans
½ head broccoli (about 150g/5oz)
30g (1oz) fresh basil
20g (⅔ oz) pine nuts, toasted (I buy mine ready toasted, but if not toast them yourself carefully in a dry pan on a low heat until golden brown)
40g (1.5oz) vegetarian Parmesan (or another hard Italian cheese)
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
70g (2.5oz) soft cheese
1 lemon
Salt and black pepper
Method
Boil a kettle full of water, then start by preparing your vegetables. Give your potatoes a good rinse, then slice them into rounds about 0.5cm (¼ inch) thick. Trim any scraggly ends from the green beans and cut in half, and cut the broccoli into small florets. Don’t forget to chop up some of the stalk into bitesize pieces too!
Once the kettle has boiled, get a large pan on the hob on a medium heat and add your boiling water with a good pinch of salt. Once the water is back to boiling, add 250g (9oz) pasta and the sliced potatoes to the pan. Wait for the water to come back up to the boil, then cook for 10 minutes or until the pasta and potatoes are cooked to your liking.
While the pasta cooks, let’s make the pesto! In a food processor, add your basil leaves (remove the stalks), pine nuts, Parmesan, garlic, olive oil, soft cheese and the juice of half a lemon with a pinch of salt and a grinding of black pepper. Blitz them together until you get a fairly smooth paste.
About five minutes before the pasta and potatoes are cooked, throw your broccoli and green beans into the same pan as the pasta to cook.
Once everything is cooked to your liking, drain away the pasta water, then stir the pesto into the pasta and vegetables - the residual heat in the pan will heat the sauce up in the process.
Serve in pasta bowls with a sprinkling of Parmesan, some black pepper, and a wedge from the remaining ½ of your lemon to squeeze over the finished dish!
Alternative method
If you don’t have a food processor, or want to make a more cost-effective version of this dish, replace the homemade pesto with half a jar of ready made pesto, mixed with 70g (2.5oz) soft cheese and the juice of ½ lemon.