Pasta with any pesto or simple Indian way of Masala Pasta is always a favorite food for kids. During school days, I make atleast Pasta once a week for their lunch box. We can make Pesto with Basil, Avocado, broccoli, Tomato-basil and many more varieties. Pesto always add a nice flavor and texture to pasta. We can use any type of pasta for this recipe. I used Penne Pasta but we can also use spaghetti, angel hair or macaroni pasta too.

Traditionally, Pesto recipes include fresh basil leaves, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil and sometimes parmesan cheese is also added. We can add any leafy greens instead of basil. Also we can use almonds or cashews or walnuts in place of pine nuts.

Few Tips for Pesto:

Adding Pine nut or toasted almonds bring out a nice nutty flavor of the pesto
Adding oil gradually while grinding in a slow steady stream, makes the pesto much creamier
We can refrigerate the pesto for a week in an air-tight container

We can use Pesto,

As a spread for Pizza base instead of pizza red sauce
Toss it with cooked Pasta
As a spread on sandwich with more vegetables and cheese and grill the sandwich
As a marination for Paneer kebab

Try this simple Broccoli Pesto Pasta and share your comments!

Table of Contents

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Recipe Card for Broccoli Pesto Pasta Recipe:

Instructions with Step by Step Pictures

COOKING PASTA

Bring 1 litre of water to boil. Add salt, a teaspoon of olive oil to the boilng water. Add pasta and cook the pasta till its soft but firm. You can see the instructions on back of the Pasta box to cook the Pasta. Once the Pasta is cooked, drain the excess water through a strainer. Then wash the cooked pasta with running water. Set this cooked Pasta aside

PREPARING BROCCOLI PESTO

Wash and Steam cook the Broccoli Florets till they are soft but not mushy. We can add the florets to a microwave safe bowl and cook for about 3 minutes.

Once the broccoli is cooked, take it to the mixer jar along with garlic, pine nuts, peppercorns, salt, basil leaves and olive oil and grind it to a paste. Now the Broccoli Pesto is ready

FINISHING BROCCOLI PESTO PASTA

In a pan, heat the butter. When the butter melts, add the broccoli pesto and give a mix. Then add the cooked pasta to the pan and mix well so that the pesto and pasta gets incorporated well