Pesto Pasta Recipe

Pesto pasta is plated and sprinkled with parmesan.

5 from 3 votes

Pesto Pasta is a bright and easy pasta recipe that's unbelievably easy to make in less than 30 minutes. All you need to make this easy pasta recipe is homemade pesto, your favorite pasta, and parmesan cheese. Don't miss a secret ingredient below!

Prep Time15

Cook Time8

Total Time23

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American, Italian

Servings:

Calories: 864kcal

Author: Lyuba Brooke

Ingredients

Pesto:

2 oz fresh basil
2 garlic cloves
2 oz Parmesan cheese (shaved or shredded)
3 oz pine nuts
1/2 cup (+2 tablespoons) olive oil
salt

Pasta:

1 lb pasta of choice
1/2-2/3 cup cooking water from cooking pasta
Parmesan cheese for topping

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Homemade Pesto:

In a food processor, add about half the oil.
Add basil, pine nuts, cheese, garlic, and salt to the blender and pour remaining olive oil over the top.
Pulse several times to begin to blend. Scrape sides of the blender and pulse a few more times. You may need to scrape the sides again and pulse a few more times until all ingredients are well blended.

Pesto Pasta:

Cook pasta according to the box instructions and right before draining off water, set aside about a cup of cooking water. (Some cooking water will go into pasta and set aside extra just in case you will need to reheat the pasta leftover's later.)
Toss pasta with pesto and about 1/2-2/3 cup of cooking water.
Plate pasta and top it off with some Parmesan cheese.

Notes

Gluten Free: to make this dish gluten free, simply use your favorite gluten free pasta. Pesto is already gluten free but as always, double check the seasoning.
Storing: If you know that you will not able to eat the whole pound of pasta that you cooked, you can toss only a portion of the pasta with pesto and some cooking water and then store leftovers separately. Then, reheat the leftover pasta with some cooking water and toss the hot pasta with pesto.
In the instance that you did toss everything with pesto, you can gently and slowly warm it up in a warm oven. First, preheat the oven to 350°F, then turn it off. Add the leftover pesto pasta into a baking dish and toss it with extra cooking water that you saved. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and put it into the warm oven for about 20 minutes to warm up to room temperature.

Nutrition