Basil Pesto Pasta
Basil Pesto Pasta is an Italian pasta made with Basil Pesto sauce along with roasted veggies
Ingredients
Basil Pesto
- 2 Packed Cups Italian Basil Leaves approx 120 grams
- ¼ Cup Walnuts
- 2 tbsp Roasted and Peeled Peanuts
- 4 cloves Garlic
- ½ Cup Grated Parmesan or Mature Cheddar Cheese
- ⅓ Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Sea Salt to taste
- ¼ tsp Ground Pepper
- *Note - If you are using Pine Nuts, replace the walnuts and peanuts with ⅓ Cup Pine nuts
Basil Pesto Pasta
- 300 grams Farfalle Pasta or Pasta of your choice
- 1 Red Capsicum
- 1 Yellow Capsicum
- 12-15 Cherry Tomatoes
- 200 grams Mushroom
- 4 cloves Garlic
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- Grated Parmesan or Cheddar Cheese for garnishing
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Wash the basil and pat dry. Chop the basil leaves without bruising them.
- In a pestle & mortar or a food processer, add the walnuts and peanuts (or pine nuts) and garlic and pound them till they are coarsely ground.
- Once the nuts are pound, add the chopped basil leaves and pound or pulse grind them.
- Once the basil leaves are ground, add the grated cheese. Pulse grind couple of times.
- Now add extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and blitz on low speed till the oil is incorporated well. Do not add water while making pesto.
- Basil Pesto is ready. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil on top after transferring to bowl to avoid oxidizing of the basil.
- Bring water to a roaring boil and add plenty of salt to water and add the pasta.
- When the pasta is cooked to al dente (with still a bite to it), drain the pasta and rinse once in cold water. Add some olive oil on top and mix well to avoid sticking.
- Apply a small amount of oil on the red and yellow capsicum and grill them on flame directly till it is completely charred.
- The capsicum or bell peppers must look like this after roasting.
- Peel the skin of the bell peppers and remove the seeds from inside and chop them fine.
- In a pan, add some olive oil and chopped garlic and then add the cherry tomatoes (halved) and sprinkle some salt and roast till the skin starts shrinking.
- Once the tomatoes have roasted, add the chopped roasted capsicum and mix well.
- In a separate pan, heat butter and cook the chopped mushrooms on high flame. Once cooked and brown in colour, add salt and pepper to taste.
- Now add the cooked pasta and give it a toss. Add the cooked mushrooms and required amount of basil pesto.
- Mix well and cook for just a minute.
- Add grated parmesan or cheddar cheese on top while serving.
Notes
- Pesto tastes best when made in pestle and mortar, however bit time consuming to pound it fine.
- If you are vegetarian, be cautious while using parmesan cheese as the conventional parmesan cheese contains animal rennet, so look for the parmesan cheese with vegetable rennet.
- Do not add water while grinding the pesto. If you feel that the pesto is dry, add more olive oil.
- In this recipe, I have used a combination of 1/4th cup Walnuts and 2 tablespoons roasted and peeled peanuts, however if you have pine nuts you could replace both these ingredients with 1/3rd cup pine nuts.
- Try using a hard cheese like parmesan or mature cheddar cheese for the pesto. Processed cheese might not work good for this recipe.
- Basil pesto tends to turn slightly blackish green on top due to oxidizing of the basil. If you just mix it again, the colour is restored. Alternatively, you could add few drops of lime juice to prevent this.
- While storing the pesto, wrap it in a clingfilm with the clingfilm touching the top layer of the pesto and ensuring that there is no air in between. This way the pesto stays fresh for longer.
- Cherry tomatoes work great for this pasta, however if you do not have cherry tomatoes, you can use the regular ones too.
- Roasting the bell peppers make them incredibly sweet and tasty.
- If you prefer a milder flavour of pesto in the pasta, do not add the entire pesto at once and add as required.