Summertime Pesto

Besides our passion for wine and visiting wineries, we also have a huge love for cooking and exploring new dishes. On a recent trip, Dave picked up a copy of Bon Appétit Magazine to read on his flight home. The cover had a gorgeous picture of spaghetti with parsley pesto on it. It looked so delicious and sounded simple to make.

Over the past Memorial Day weekend, we wanted to barbecue gourmet style burgers and pair it with the pasta from the magazine, which was suggested to be served cold and sounded perfect for our sunny and warm Memorial Day.

Can we just start by saying…OH MY GOODNESS! Sooooooo YUMMY! This pasta turned out to be everything we were looking for and more. We did modify the recipe slightly, which we will share in the recipe to follow, but the biggest thing that won us over was the simplicity of the pesto. Now, traditional pestos have a lot of garlic in them, but this one had none. We found that we really favored it this way when enjoying it with the wine we were drinking. Sometimes the garlic in pesto can overpower the wine, but this was clearly not the case here.

Our simple pasta turned out to be a huge success! Not only is this a great sauce for pasta, it would also be wonderful on veggies, meats or as a dip for summertime entertaining.

Cheers!

 

Ingredients:

1lb. spaghetti (we also like to use farfalle)

Kosher salt

1/2 cup unsalted, roasted almonds

2 cups (packed) fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves*

2 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves*

3/4 cup chopped fresh chives

3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan

Freshly ground black pepper

 

Directions:

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Drain, reserving 2 cups pasta cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, pulse some almonds in a food processor until smooth. Add parsley, basil, chives, oil, and Parmesan; process until smooth. Season pesto with salt and pepper.

Toss pasta and pesto in a large bowl adding pasta cooking liquid by 1/4-cupfuls until saucy. Season with salt and pepper.

Do Ahead: Pesto can be made 5 days ahead. Cover surface directly; chill.

Makes 6 servings

 

* The recipe calls for 4 cups fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves. We split 2 cups fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves and 2 cups fresh basil leaves.