What do you do when it’s almost dinner time and you don’t really feel like spending one hour in the kitchen? Takeout, canned food? No! How about a quick mediterranean diet dinner. This vibrant green parsley & pistachio pesto pasta dish is packed with flavor! Featuring a homemade pesto sauce made with unsalted pistachios, parsley, and a secret ingredient that gives it a little kick. Trust me, this dish will become a new favorite in your recipe book.
Jump to RecipeWhy I Love This Recipe
- Quick and Easy: This parsley & pistachio pesto pasta can be made in just 15 minutes, making it the perfect choice for a busy weeknight dinner.
- Healthy: With whole wheat pasta, raw pistachios, and extra virgin olive oil, this dish is packed with protein, fiber, and healthy fats.
- Great Leftovers: This pesto is a great option for meal prep, as it can be refrigerated and you just combine it with cooked pasta and grated cheese. You can make a large batch of this parsley pesto and enjoy it throughout the week, making it a convenient and delicious option for busy people.
- Impressive Presentation: This dish is not only delicious and healthy, but it also looks impressive on the plate. The vibrant green color of the pesto sauce and the garnish of toasted panko breadcrumbs and sun-dried tomatoes make this dish look like it came from a fancy restaurant. It’s a great option for dinner parties or when you want to impress your loved one with your cooking skills.
Why It Works
- Raw Pistachios: Pistachios are a great source of protein, fiber, and healthy fats. When blended into a pesto sauce, they create a creamy and flavorful base that pairs perfectly with pasta.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: This healthy oil is rich in antioxidants and healthy fats, making it a great choice for cooking and baking.
- Pecorino Cheese: This aged cheese adds a salty and tangy flavor to the pesto sauce, while also providing a good source of protein and calcium.
- Parsley & Green Onion: Not the most likely components of a pesto but since they’re super cheap and readily available it makes it very easy to shop for the ingredients.
Step by Step Instructions
- Start by preparing the pasta according to the package instructions. For a more Mediterranean-diet friendly option, consider using whole wheat pasta or pasta that is bronze-cut for a rougher texture.
- While the pasta is cooking, prepare the pesto sauce by blending together raw pistachios, parsley, green onions, garlic, hot pepper flakes, extra virgin olive oil, salt, lemon juice, and cold water in a blender or food processor.
- Reserve 100ml of the pasta water before draining the pasta. Pour the reserved pasta water in the blender to get off the pesto stuck on the walls. Give it a good shake and then pour it over the pasta.
- Set the pasta and pesto sauce on medium heat and stir continuously for about 1 minute or until the consistency of the sauce is creamy.
- Turn off the heat and grate in pecorino cheese. Stir to allow the cheese to melt.
- Add a sprinkle of toasted panko breadcrumbs and a garnish of chopped sun-dried tomatoes to elevate the dish.
Variations and Substitutions
- Add More Veggies: Feel free to add more veggies to this dish based on your preferences. Chopped bell peppers or cherry tomatoes would be great additions.
- Pistachio too expensive?: Swap it for walnuts or any other similar not that is cheaper in your area.
- Skip the Pecorino Cheese: If you don’t have pecorino cheese on hand, you can leave it out or replace it with another type of cheese such as parmesan or feta.
- Swap the Pasta: You can use any type of pasta for this dish, but fusilli pasta works best for holding onto the pesto sauce.
- Make it Vegan: To make this dish vegan, simply skip the cheese and add more veggies.
- Gluten-Free Option: Replace the pasta with a gluten-free option such as brown rice pasta or quinoa pasta, and use gluten-free breadcrumbs.
Parsley & Pistachio Pesto
A quick and delicious Pesto that uses parsley and pistachio
Ingredients
- 100g (3.5 oz) raw pistachios unsalted
- 1 large sprig parsley
- 2 sprigs green onion just the green part
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 1/4 tsp hot pepper flakes
- 60g (2 oz) pecorino cheese 15g per portion
- 100ml (7 tbsp) olive oil extra virgin
- 240g (1/2 lb) fusili pasta 60g per portion
For toppings
- 20g 3 tbsp panko bread crumbs
- 10g butter
- 2-4 sun dried tomates chopped
Instructions
- Starting with the pasta, prepare the pasta on the side then in a pot add just enough water to accommodate the pasta plus a few pinches of salt. While waiting for the water to boil, prepare the pesto.
- For the Pesto, for the parsley, remove any stems that do not have leaves on them. Cut it into smaller pieces to ensure that they can move freely inside the blender. Next, add the green parts from two scallions, pistachios, hot pepper flakes, three cloves of garlic, the extra virgin olive oil, salt, lemon juice, cold water. Blend the ingredients together in a blender.
- Once the water is boiling, add the pasta. Set a timer for 2 minutes less than what the package recommends.
- Reserve 100ml of the pasta water before draining the pasta. Pour the reserved pasta water in the blender to get off the pesto stuck on the walls. Give it a good bartender shake and then pour it over the pasta.
- Set it on medium heat and stir continuously for about 1 minute or until the consistency of the sauce looks creamy.
- Turn the heat off and grate in 60g of pecorino cheese. Stir to allow the cheese to melt.
- Add a sprinkle of toasted panko breadcrumbs a garnish of chopped sun-dried tomatoes.
Did you make this recipe?
I’d love to hear how it turned out! Leave a comment below, or tag me with @solozaurcooking on Instagram and hashtag it #solozaurcookin.