I’ve made spinach pesto pasta about a million times now. While you’ve got a pot of water boiling for the pasta, you can quickly put together a batch of spinach pesto if your food processor. Toss it all together with a splash of pasta water and you’ve got what I like to call one of my favorite weeknight, veggie-disliking-hubby approved dinner recipes. It’s not often that I make a recipe frequently once it passes the recipe testing phase. Let’s face it, it’s both a perk and a hazard of the job to have to move on. But, I find myself gravitating towards spinach pesto pasta often in the summertime. It works great as a side for my tomato baked chicken or as a side for steak and shrimp. You won’t believe how quickly a whole pound of pasta disappears when you coat it in this quick pesto!
Ingredients for spinach pesto pasta:
Prepared spinach pesto: It’s become a standard refrigerator item for me lately. You could also use basil pesto for this recipe and it will work equally well! Pasta: I prefer to use linguine here but honestly any short or long shape of pasta will do. You could use farfalle, shells, fussili col buco, cavatelli, orecchiette, or even tortellini!Reserved pasta water: Pasta water is the starchy water that you’re left with after boiling pasta. The salty, starchy water is perfect to make a sauce with the pesto and it helps coat the pasta beautifully.Shaved pecorino or parm: This is optional but a generous shaving of pecorino or parmesan cheese really adds delicious flavor right at the end.
How to make spinach pesto pasta:
Best tips for spinach pesto pasta:
Don’t forget to serve pasta water! Regular water won’t provide the same creamy texture that starchy, salty pasta water will.Toss the pasta with pesto immediately. You want to do this while the pasta is still hot so that the hot pasta water and pasta really release the flavors of the pesto.Don’t be afraid to cheese is up. Give it a good few shavings of pecorino or parmesan! Sometimes I like to add it in while I’m combining the pesto, pasta, and water so that the cheese starts to melt and really gets into the nooks and crannies of the pasta!
If you like this recipe, you might also like:
One-Pot Creamy Mushroom PastaSimple, Comforting Homemade SpaghettiOsCreamy Paprika Chicken PastaDeliciously Easy Cacio e PepeLemon Basil Arugula Pasta Salad
If you aren’t a fan of spinach pesto this recipe can also be made with basil pesto or sun-dried tomato pesto.
