easy pesto pasta
This is a super tasty and easy pasta dish to whip up for dinner during the week! The pesto is made with a few simple ingredients, including raw walnuts and basil.
Servings 4
Ingredients
walnut pesto
- 1 ½ C raw walnuts
- 2 ½ C basil leaves
- ¼ C lemon juice
- 3 garlic cloves
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ C olive oil
pasta
- 280 g lasagna noodles, broken by hand (or pasta of your choice)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 vine tomato, diced
- 2 tablespoon vegan parmesan
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta to al dente (it takes approximately 10 minutes), then drain from the cooking water but do not rinse!
- Meanwhile in a food processor, combine all the ingredients for the walnut pesto, except the olive oil. Once the machine is running and the walnuts and other ingredients start to come together to form a fine meal, drizzle the olive oil through the spout as the food processor is running. You may need to stop and push the pesto back down toward the blade with a spatula, and then start up the machine again. Combine until smooth and set aside.
- Heat a large pan over medium-low heat with ½ a tablespoon of olive oil and add the cooked pasta and all the pesto. Stir to coat well and heat through for approximately 3 to 4 minutes. Then add another ½ a tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of vegan parmesan and continue tossing over the heat until well combined.
- Portion out pasta into serving dishes and top with diced tomato, more vegan parmesan, and freshly ground black pepper to taste.