Pesto pasta salad
Recipe video above. Don't skimp on pesto, and don't be shy with olive oil. If you do, you'll end up staring at a mound of flavour-lacking, dry pesto pasta salad, thinking "darn it, I should have just followed the recipe!".PS Just 2 tablespoons of mayo is the secret here. Just gives an edge of creaminess without weighing it down, plus significantly improves the quality of next-day leftovers - prevents it from drying out.TIP: Homemade pesto obviously rules here, but if you need to resort to store-bought, get it from the fridge rather than aisle. It's better.
- Prep time
- 15 min
- Cook time
- 15 min
- Yield
- 5 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 350g / 12oz spiral pasta ((fusilli, or other of choice, 3 1/2 cups))
- 1 tbsp salt (, for cooking pasta)
- 2 tbsp pinenuts (, toasted (sub walnuts, cashews, almonds))
- 2 cups (tightly packed) basil leaves
- 1 small garlic clove (, minced)
- 1/2 cup parmesan (, finely grated)
- 1/2 tsp cooking/kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 7 tbsp extra virgin olive oil ((or 50/50 grapeseed/olive oil))
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise ((S&W, else Hellman's, Note 2))
- 250g (1 heaped cup) cherry tomatoes, cut in half
- 220g/ 7 oz baby bocconcini (, drained, cut in half (Note 3))
- 1 cup (tightly packed) baby rocket/arugula leaves (40g)
- 1/2 tsp cooking/kosher salt
- Small basil leaves (, optional garnish)
Instructions
- 1
Cook pasta - Bring 3 litres of water to the boil with the salt. Cook for the pasta packet time + 1 minute. Drain in a colander, rinse under cold water. Shake off excess water well, then allow to fully cool and dry.
- 2
Pesto - Place all ingredients in a tall jug just large enough to fit the head of a stick blender. Blitz under pretty smooth. Not a green smoothie, we still want some visible green bits! but not chunks.
- 3
Toss - Place pasta in a bowl, scrape in the pesto. Add mayonnaise then toss well. Add bocconcini and tomato, toss gently just to disperse. Add rocket/arugula and toss just to disperse.
- 4
Serve - Transfer into a serving bowl. Scatter with basil leaves, if using. Serve!