It’s another pasta recipe! And this one is so delicous and filled with bright green vegetables. Green machine pesto pasta is packed with green vegetables to add extra vitamins but also has traditional basil ingredients like basil, parmesan cheese, and nuts. The extra vegetables make this one healthy pasta recipe, but also give it the prettiest green color. Who can resist? You don’t even need to serve this with a salad on the side thanks to the vegetables packed into it, but I’ll never turn down a big piece of garlic bread with my pasta.
Here are some of the ingredients in this green machine pesto pasta recipe:
- Spinach
- Broccoli
- Peas
- Basil
- Almonds
- Parmesan cheese
- Garlic
- Olive oil
You don’t need to cook any of the vegetables before you give them a whirl in the food processor to make this delicious green pesto. Simply boil your pasta of choice (I used linguini here), toss it with the pesto and some reserved pasta water, and dinner is served.
When you make pesto, it’s important to blend all the ingredients except the olive oil together a bit, then drizzle the olive oil in while the food processor is running. This makes sure your pesto is the perfect texture! And you can use just enough olive oil to get the right consistency. Even though this pesto is the “sauce” for the pasta, you will reserve some of the pasta water from cooking to help loosen up the sauce and allow it to stick to the noodles. Pasta water is magic with all the starchy goodness in it. Every time I forget to reserve some, I immediately regret it! Always save about a cup of pasta water before you drain.
This pasta just tastes and looks like spring. My kids called it monster pasta! Pair it with a glass of white wine and some sunny skies for the perfect dinner.
- 1 lb. pasta of choice (I like linguini for this recipe)
- 1½ cups frozen and thawed peas
- 2 small broccoli crowns, but into florets
- 4-5 big handfuls of spinach
- ½ cup fresh basil leaves
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 garlic cloves
- ⅓ cup almonds
- ½ cup shredded parmesan cheese + more for serving
- ½ tsp. ground black pepper
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water before draining and setting aside.
- While the pasta cooks, make the pesto. In a food processor, put peas, broccoli, spinach, basil, salt, garlic, parmesan cheese, almonds, and pepper. Blend until the mixture is in roughly uniform pieces, then drizzle in the olive oil while the food processor is running. You can use more if needed! Taste and add more salt if needed.
- Pour the pesto over the pasta and toss to combine. Add pasta water as needed to loosen up the pasta. Cook over medium heat until heated throughout.
- Serve with additional parmesan cheese.
- Enjoy!
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