Behold, the power of a delicious pesto.
Remember my insanely delicious walnut pesto I made last summer?
I paired it with grilled shrimp, and skewered raviolis! Such a light and delicious summer meal. You can find the recipes, here
For Dan’s birthday yesterday we were kind of lost on what to have for dinner. Usually for special occasions we’ll order in, or go out to eat, but seeing as were not going anywhere and we ordered in twice this weekend our take-out threshold was hit. I immediately thought of this pesto, and decided to kick it up a notch and coat some cavatappi pasta in it, and pair with a grilled buttery sourdough bread that is covered with arugula and tomatoes that have been tossed in garlic expressions dressing.
Delicious!
Within 20 minutes, you can make the pesto, boil the pasta, grill the bread and have a fresh healthy dinner ready for your crew!
Walnut Pesto
- 2 oz. Basil Leaves
- 1/3 cup Heinen’s grated parmesan cheese
- 1 garlic clove (or two if you love garlic like me)
- Zest and juice of 1 Lemon
- ½ cup walnuts
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- ½ tsp. pepper
Simply place all of the ingredients above into a food processor and blend together for 3 minutes until smooth. I usually double my recipe because I love to have it on hand to add to sandwiches. Also, if you double it is incredibly delicious if you do the 2oz of basil, and then do 2oz of arugula too!
Boil your pasta of choice…. and reserve one cup of pasta water before you drain it!
And then simply add 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the walnut pesto to the hot pasta, and 1/2 cup of the pasta water to loosen the pesto up. Toss, toss toss! If you need another 1/2 cup of pasta water, add it – and toss until it is a creamy consistency.
For the Sourdough Bread
Simply spread butter across a halved loaf of sourdough. Place onto a grill pan, and sear. Next, take arugula and halved grape tomatoes and toss in garlic expressions dressings. Once the bread is nice and golden, take it off the grill pan and pile it high with the arugula and tomatoes. YUM
We added some grilled chicken skewers that we had from Costco (they are pre cooked so you just warm them through) – Within 20 minutes, your dinner is done!
