Pesto Spaghetti Recipe

This pesto spaghetti recipe offers a simple way to bring complex Italian flavors into your meal. It mixes pasta with an aromatic and herbaceous pesto sauce that’s complemented by bright pops of cherry tomatoes, and finishes with tangy hints of parmesan cheese. The whole dish comes together easily in approximately 20 minutes, making it the ideal choice for any weeknight dinner.

What Does Pesto Spaghetti Taste Like?

Pesto is a traditional Italian sauce made mainly from basil, garlic, cheese, pine nuts, and various types of leafy greens. This gives it a diverse flavor profile.

Most prominent is the vibrant and herbaceous basil scent, layered with the garlic’s robust piquancy, as well as the cheese and nuts’ earthy undertone. For recipes that also add veggies like spinach or kale, it also has a pleasant grassy taste.

When paired with spaghetti, pesto gives the overall dish a delicious creaminess. The pasta is relatively neutral, which balances out the sauce’s intense aroma and keeps it from being too overwhelming.

Save

Is Our Recipe Healthy?

With approximately 5 g saturated fat and 573 mg sodium in a 459-calorie serving, we believe the answer is yes. To arrive at these amounts, we have carefully selected and measured the ingredients based on our healthy-eating guidelines.

Furthermore, our pesto sauce’s main ingredient is spinach. This leafy green provides a substantial amount of water, vitamins A, E, C, and numerous minerals. It’s also rich in zeaxanthin and lutein, which are carotenoids that may help to reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration.

Another great source of vitamins in this dish is cherry tomatoes. They are packed with various vitamins and other nutrients, resulting in potential health benefits like reducing inflammation, lowering heart disease risk, and promoting skin health.

Ingredients You'll Need

This pesto spaghetti comes together quite easily, with most of the ingredients only needing some simple preparation. Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make the dish:

1. For the Sauce

• Spinach: As one of the key ingredients, spinach’s grassy and earthy taste sets the base flavor for the pesto sauce. When buying this vegetable, look for ones with dark green and crispy leaves, small stems, and a fresh scent. More matured ones have darkened leaves and thick stems, which may have a bitter taste, so avoid them if you don’t like the harsh flavor.
• Basil: This essential pesto ingredient gives the sauce its signature vibrant and herbaceous flavor. The herb also has a peppery and slightly “spicy” undertone that’s balanced out quite nicely by a sweet aftertaste.
• Aromatics: We used garlic and shallot to add a robust aroma. Garlic, in particular, is an essential ingredient that gives the pesto its signature subtle garlicky scent.
• Pine Nuts: Pine nuts have a relatively soft and nutty taste with hints of sweetness, adding a tender layer of flavor to the sauce. When blended, they also contribute to the velvety consistency of the sauce. If you don’t have any on hand, substitute them with other varieties like almonds or walnuts.
• Parmesan Cheese: Keeping up with the earthy and rustic flavor profile, we added sprinkles of parmesan cheese to the pesto sauce. Its distinguished nutty undertone also pairs marvelously with the pine nuts.
• Other Ingredients: We also added chicken broth, olive oil, and lemon juice to smooth out the dish’s texture and enrich its flavor. The lemon juice also helps to brighten up the overall taste of the dish, giving it a lively, zesty lift.

Save

2. For the Pasta

• Spaghetti: As the name suggests, this recipe uses spaghetti. You can also use other long-strand varieties like angel hair, linguine, and fettuccine. If you want to go for different shapes, penne or ziti are also good. Or make your own pasta from scratch, just as you would with Spaetzle or Sweet Potato Gnocchi.
• Cherry Tomato: Cherry tomatoes bring a gorgeous pop of color and flavor to the dish. They’re bright, sweet, and deliciously juicy with hints of sourness, giving the taste buds a great burst of flavor versatility.

How to Store and Reheat

This pasta should last up to three days when kept in an airtight container in the fridge. To reheat, you can either place it in the microwave for one minute or gently stir it on the stovetop over medium-low heat. Add a little olive oil or water to loosen the texture if it appears dry.

What Meat Goes With Pesto Spaghetti

Pesto’s bright and vivid flavors can be suitably complemented by a variety of meat. You can either add some directly to the dish or make a separate one to serve alongside the pasta.

• Chicken: Grilled or roasted chicken has a smoky taste that meshes quite nicely with the pesto’s earthy tones.
• Seafood: Sweet and delicate, seafood like shrimp and salmon have a tender flavor profile that won’t be overwhelming when paired with pesto.
• Other Meats: Ground beef, pork chops, sausage, or even bacon are great additions if you want to introduce some irresistible savoriness to the dish.

Save

What to Serve With

This pesto spaghetti will go well with a wide variety of salads, especially ones featuring similar ingredients like tomatoes and leafy greens. Here are some of our suggestions:

• Grilled Chicken Salad Recipe
• Burrata Salad Recipe
• Spinach Salad Recipe
• Cobb Salad Recipe
• Caprese Salad Recipe

How to Make Pesto Spaghetti

5 from 2 votes

This pesto spaghetti recipe mixes pasta with aromatic and herbaceous pesto sauce, bright cherry tomatoes, and tangy parmesan cheese. The whole dish comes together easily in approximately 20 minutes, making it the ideal choice for any weeknight dinner.

Pin Print

• cook TIME 8 mins
• prep TIME 12 mins
• total TIME 20 mins

• COURSE Main Course
• CUISINE Italian
• SERVINGS
  4

  servings
• CALORIES 459 kcal

INGREDIENTS

1x2x3x

• 17 oz cooked spaghetti (from 8.5 oz raw)
• 1 oz spinach
• 0.5 oz basil
• 2 tbsp parsley (chopped)
• 3 oz red cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 1 oz shredded parmesan cheese (divided)
• 6 tbsp olive oil (divided to 5 tbsp and 1 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3 garlic cloves
• 0.5 oz shallot (coarsely chopped)
• 2 fl oz unsalted chicken broth
• 1 oz pine nut

INSTRUCTIONS

Prep:

1

Cook the Spaghetti: Boil the water, add the pasta then check the packaging for the specific cooking time. Gently stir every few minutes then drain when pasta becomes al dente.

2

Chop the Shallot: Slice off the stem, peel and discard the skin, separate the bulbs, then chop into large pieces.

3

Chop the Parsley: Remove the stems. Bunch the leaves together on one hand then thinly slice. Rock the knife back and forth over the pile for finer pieces.

4

Halve the Tomatoes

Cook:

1

Cook the Greens: Bring water to a boil then add 1 oz spinach and 0.5 oz basil for 30 seconds then remove and transfer into a bowl of ice water to soak until cool. Bunch the leaves together then gently squeeze to dry.

2

Blend the Sauce: In a blender or food processor, add the cooked basil and spinach, 0.5 oz shredded parmesan cheese, 3/4 tsp salt, 3 garlic cloves, 0.5 oz shallot, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 5 tbsp olive oil, 1 oz pine nut, and 2 fl oz unsalted chicken broth and blend until well-combined.

3

Sauté the Tomatoes: In a pan over medium heat add 1 tbsp olive oil and 3 oz red cherry tomatoes, then sauté for 1 minute.

4

Add the Spaghetti and Sauce: Continue adding 17 oz spaghetti and the pesto sauce, and evenly stir for another 3 minutes.

5

Serve and Enjoy: Transfer the cooked mixture onto serving plates and garnish with 0.5 oz shredded parmesan cheese, 2 tbsp parsley, and 1/2 tsp pepper.

NUTRITION

Nutrition Facts

How to Make Pesto Spaghetti

Amount Per Serving (1 serving)

Calories 459Calories from Fat 257

% Daily Value*

Fat 28.5g

44%

Saturated Fat 5.1g

32%

Cholesterol 5mg

2%

Sodium 573mg

25%

Potassium 242mg

7%

Carbohydrate 42g

14%

Fiber 3g

13%

Sugar 1g

1%

Protein 12g

24%

Vitamin A 1144IU

23%

Vitamin C 13mg

16%

Calcium 125mg

13%

Iron 2mg

11%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Keywords: how to make pesto spaghetti, pesto spaghetti, pesto spaghetti recipe