Pesto Pasta - Vegetarian Friendly

This is one of our lazy time summer recipe - it's so quick to make, but it's so tasty and refreshing. There's no meat involved in this recipe and actually you don't even need any, the flavor is already so nice and balanced, and you have the creamy texture from the olive oil and pine nuts, it's just the perfection on its own.

It's super easy to make, really even my "kitchen killer" friend could nail it in one go.

Supplies

You will need:

Blender

Zester

Pot

And of course mixing bowl and spoons etc.

Step 1: Ingredients and Preparation

You will need:

Basil leaves 1 cup

Spinach leaves 1/2 cup

Pine nuts 1/2 cup

Garlic clove 2 ea

Olive Oil 1/2 cup

Parmesan cheese 40-50g

Lemon 1/2ea

Salt and pepper to your own taste

Here I used a combination of basil leaves and spinach leaves. As I used home grown basil and the taste it quite strong,I find that the additional spinach leaves make the flavor more delicate. However if you basil leaves are not that strong, or you particularly like a strong basil flavor, feel free to substitute spinach leaves to basil leaves.

Preparation:

1. Peel the garlic

2. Clean the leaves for later use.

Step 2: Put in the Ingredients

1. Put your basil leaves and spinach leaves into a blender, add peeled garlic cloves.

2. Put in your pine nut, salt and pepper as well

3. Zest half of a lemon into the blender, and squeeze in the juice of half a lemon.

Step 3: Now Blend Your Pesto!

1. Blend with your blender till it's very smooth and no chunks left.

2. Transfer it into a mixing bowl or a normal bowl, and start to shred your parmesan cheese. Here you can also adjust the amount of cheese by your own liking, however don't put too much at this stage, as you can always shred some more before serving.

3. You can also adjust the consistency with olive oil. We added a little bit extra olive oil for taste and texture.

4. Mix the shredded cheese (and olive oil) into the sauce, and it's ready for later use.

Step 4: Boil Your Pasta

Well this should be really easy for everyone... but depends on different brand and type, please cook with the instructions on the package. For our pasta, we boiled a big pot of water with about 10g salt (the water should really be salty for boiling pasta), and boiled the pasta for 7 min, till it's al dente.

Drain the pasta, and put it back to the pot.

Mix in your pesto, and your nice & easy vegetarian dinner is solved!

Step 5: Enjoy!

Put your mixed pasta in a nice bowl, add a bit extra pesto if you like, shred some more parmesan cheese (yes nobody will refuse that), and enjoy!

The pesto is super easy to make, and it just tastes 100 times better than a pesto from a jar. It's really creamy and tasty, but refreshing at the same time.

You can also use pesto for some other recipes, for example as a spread for bread, or a condiment for grilled vegetables. It's so versatile and healthy it's our go-to recipe when we're in a pesto mood.

Hope you will find this instructable helpful, and have fun cooking!

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