How To Make Pesto Pasta

This is my favorite pasta dish ever – bright, creamy and of course, authentic. Perfect for a summer weeknight meal!

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The first step in my pesto pasta recipe will make your kitchen smell amazing It involves just taking a simple head of garlic then chopping off the very top just enough to expose the garlic underneath And then I’ll place this into a little mini oven safe pot and cover it most of the way with olive oil as well as a little sprinkle of salt and some fresh cracked pepper I’ll cover this and place it in the oven while we finish the rest of our steps To make our fresh pasta I’ll use a combination of semolina flour which gives chewiness and double zero flour which will give silkiness I’ll mix these both up with a fork to fully combine And as a quick note if you can’t find double zero flour you’ll be just fine with allpurpose flour And once that’s fully mixed I’ll dump it out right on the center of my cutting board Just like that And now using the same bowl we just mixed it up in press it out to make a little well We do this to make a little hole where we can add our wet ingredients to finish the dough Now in we go with a bit of warm water The reason we’re using warm water is because it hydrates the semolina faster And then using that same fork we just used to whisk we’re going to pull in the flour from the outsides of the well making sure not to break any of the edges while we pull everything in and slowly combine This is a really fun but also gradual process You must be patient I find it also helps to keep a bench scraper handy especially once you start pulling in that flour from the outside Make sure everything is fully combined Your initial goal is to get this all into one big lumpy ball Eventually you can ditch the utensils and get in there with your hands It’s really fun to work with because that warm water keeps this dough really really nice and cozy And this process always reminds me of making warm homemade play-doh when I was a kid Work the dough just like you would a normal pasta dough using one hand to push it up each time while you use the heel of your palm on the other hand to push it down And when you’ve eventually been kneading for 5 minutes toss it in a plastic bag and leave it to rest for 20 to 30 minutes at room temperature While our dough is resting let’s make our pesto I love pesto Funny story I have a friend who thought pesto just grew on a tree that it was just its own ingredient It’s not but it is very simple It’s only five ingredients and the main ingredient is basil The first step with the basil is to just rip all the stems off But if you accidentally leave a couple stems in there they still taste totally fine But it is best generally to remove as many of them as you possibly can And I’m making a lot of pesto here because whenever I make it I just make it in batches Then you can use it on different dishes for the rest of the week and it’s delicious That is the biggest basil leaf ever Similar to the garlic that’s roasting in our oven right now this is going to make your kitchen smell amazing As you pull the basil off all its stems it’s going to release this beautiful incredible aroma all through your kitchen I truly believe that pesto is one of the best smelling things you can make in the kitchen This looks like a lot of basil right now but basil is sort of like spinach You hit it with just a little bit of heat and it turns into almost nothing Okay almost there Okay great Once you’ve removed all the stems off your basil take a pot of boiling water and then drop your basil in for just 15 seconds Do this fast What we’re doing right now is called blanching our basil It’s going to make it bright bright green and also make the taste much more mild Already this is done So I’m going to take it out drain off that water and place it down onto a towel lined baking sheet You can even see in this pot here that some of that green color came right off the basil And now over here I’m going to quickly spread out that basil and then pat it dry with another towel Once you feel like you’ve gotten it pretty dry go ahead and place this into the fridge to cool down Again you want to do this quick By now our garlic should be done You’re going to want to watch and listen to this thing carefully This really could be the cheapest and easiest way to make your kitchen smell amazing I’m going to set this off to the side Let it cool down while we continue to finish prep for our pesto Our next step involves something that my grandmother taught me at a very young age and that is toasting off pine nuts You’ll notice that I’m doing something to each of the five components of the pesto I’m roasting the garlic I’m blanching the basil These are all things that are going to elevate the taste and flavor of the final product You can make pesto without doing any of these regular steps but this is better Toasting pine nuts requires your full attention and focus You can’t walk away and work on another task Sort of like brown butter These literally burn in seconds So just focus on this one task Make sure they turn beautiful and golden brown And then you can move on to whatever else you need to do These are perfect One last thing When it comes to pine nuts we toast them because it awakens all that flavor All the oils are going to come out and you get this even more nutty beautiful toasted flavor that you wouldn’t have otherwise In the same pan that we just did our pine nuts in I’m going to quickly make something called a pan grata It’s just a fancy name for toasted breadcrumbs And along with that olive oil I’ll add a bit of salt as well as some fresh cracked pepper And when we move this around for just a few moments we get these beautifully crispy crunchy little bits that we can put on top of our pasta Really just makes the texture a whole lot more exciting You’ll get a nice crunch in addition to that smooth and creamy pesto Use your judgment on when you feel like it’s golden brown And when it is pour it off onto a paper towel lined baking sheet Spread that out to let all the olive oil drain off And that’s it We can move on to blending the pesto First step add all that basil Then second in with my pine nuts Then third in with our garlic coffee And to get a slightly different flavor of garlic I’ll also add in some fresh garlic one or two cloves depending on how garicky you want it It’s just nice to have a contrast between raw and cooked garlic because you get a little bit of that more bitter flavor and then also that sweeter caramelized flavor Then we’ll top this off with a bunch of freshly grated Parmesan cheese I usually just eyeball this part depending on how cheesy I’m feeling on that day But just remember Parmesan cheese is going to have a lot of salt so keep that in mind when you add it in Look at the front of the blender You’ll see all those layers That’s a great visual representation of how simple pesto really is And then last but not least I’ll cover this with our garlic infused olive oil You can always add in a tiny little extra drizzle of plain olive oil in there But very important note always taste the olive oil that you’re going to use for pesto because a bitter olive oil at the last second can totally ruin your pesto And finally lid on Optionally you can also throw an ice cube in and that can counteract the heat of the blender once it starts going to keep your pesto nice and green Some people say it even makes it a little bit more fluffy in consistency And then blend on low You can slowly increase the intensity You just don’t want to over mix this You want to let this go until it reaches the consistency you want It’s like peanut butter Some people like it crunchy with more texture whereas some people like it creamier and more blended This is exactly where I like mine Our pesto is done which means it’s time to shape our pasta My favorite part besides eating it As a first step use your bench scraper to trim that ball of pasta into a few nice strips They should look about this size Now save one and put the rest in your bag That way these won’t dry out And then working from the center outwards start to roll If you want you can switch your work surface to something with a bit more grip I’m just doing this on a cutting board cuz it’s easiest for you to see And once your dough is about this thickness you can go ahead and start to cut You’ll want really small cute little pieces just like these And they’re actually going to look quite similar to little baby’s cuz this part of the process is really similar to how you’d make that Take them now and roll them each into a little ball We’re making a pasta shape called orchiete and it translates from Italian to little ears You’ll see why in just a moment Take a regular knife that has those little small ridges like this one here Push the knife into the pasta and begin to pull it back watching the pasta roll over onto itself When you reach almost all the way to the end pick it up and place your thumb on the bottom of the pasta Then flip it inside out If you flip it over from here you can see exactly why they’re called little ears Does this look like an ear feels like it looks like an ear As you continue to learn how to do it you can move faster and faster It can be a little frustrating to figure out at first but it eventually becomes a really really fun process And I’ll show you exactly why I chose this type of pasta Obviously there are so many different shapes of pasta that you can choose when you go to make any dish But if you look at this shape it’s basically a perfect little cup for that pesto In fact both sides of the pasta have great surface area to hold all of that pesto If you want to sit there for a few hours you can do this as long as you want It really just depends how hungry you are See if you can find the one that looks most like an ear There is a right answer after all your hard work so nothing sticks Hit all your pasta with a bit of semolina a nice dusting from as high up as possible and mix them all through it so that everything is coated Toss these on a baking sheet to rest before we cook Let’s get that water going It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for Cooking our pasta Everything comes together pretty fast here soiete into the pot Whatever amount you decide to cook try to get it in there quickly You’ll want a nice even cook time Give it a nice stir and then leave it be And while this is cooking move over to your workstation to prepare for plating I’ve got my plate and I’ve got my bowl lemon crispy breadcrumbs and a little bara cheese Moving back over fresh pasta cooks like that Once it starts to float that’s usually a good sign that it’s done Still I always think it’s a great idea to grab one give it a quick taste Oh the texture is just unbelievable on that With all them floating and with the texture that good it’s time to drain off that liquid and toss it into a bowl We’re going to save that warm pasta water just in case we need it when we start plating On we go now with our pesto You never want to add pesto over the heat by the way That’s a great way to make it split Oh look at that And then we’ll give it a nice mix That is heaven That has got to be one of the most beautiful things in all of food To plate you’re going to want a lot of this So add a bunch of scoops down onto your plate Then I’ll make a little nest of those breadcrumbs This will add that beautiful crispy texture But I’m only doing that nest right in the center because I’m going to go right over that with some fresh torn bara That’ll add a really nice creamy layer to the dish And that I’ll season with a bit of salt little fresh cracked pepper tiny drizzle of olive oil and then some lemon zest I find that the added acidity helps to cut down on some of the fat in this dish Just for fun I’m going to top it all off with a little basil just to remember where this all came from I’m willing to bet that’ll be the best pesto pasta you ever taste I used to have a hamster named Pesto