Growing up, pasta was restricted to fancy restaurant menus. Today, pantries around the world have a packet of pasta lying around somewhere. Its time to bring that packet out and make this delicious, healthy pasta.
Pesto is a very versatile recipe. Traditionally made with basil & pine nuts, they go great on pastas, salads and sandwiches. The word pesto, however, has little to do with the ingredients and more to do with the circular pounding process, traditionally done using a mortar-pestle . At home, we love experimenting with pesto recipes. The way I think is - take a green [or a combination of them] + take a nut + add a few complementing spices and good olive oil - vóila ~ Besto Pesto! Our choice here is spinach and almonds, as these are easy to get hold of, if you don't have it lying around already. This is a wonderful way to add more greens to your diet and is as simple as turning on your blender.
Ingredients :
- 3 big handfuls of baby spinach [or regular spinach, cleaned and cut]
- 1/3rd cup of almonds
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 teaspoon of paprika [or chili powder]
- 1 teaspoon of dried herbs
- Salt & Pepper
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- Pasta for two people [I used brown rice Linguini pasta]
To cook the pasta, boil some salted water. Once the water bubbles, add in the pasta. Remember, the bubbles help keep the pasta strands separated. Cooking time depends on the pasta and you can find the times on the packet.
Toast the almonds on a dry pan till you see some color. Now the fun starts. In your blender, add the spinach and toasted nuts. Blend till everything is combined, yet the texture should be a little coarse. Now add in all the spices [garlic, dried herbs, salt & pepper]. Blend some more. Finally, with the blender running, pour in the olive oil through the small opening on top of the blender.
Your pesto is done! And your pasta should be done too. Reserve some of the pasta water and run the pasta under some cold water to prevent it from over cooking. Add the pesto on a pan and warm through. Add the cooked pasta to the pesto mix. Add in the reserved pasta water if you need to make the mixture more saucy.
Serve the pasta in a bowl. The pasta goes well with olives, cheese [feta or parmesan go great] and some freshly crushed black pepper. A few almonds or pecans, chopped, would be a great topping too!
Take a moment to admire the green goodness before you dig in! Enjoy!