I was served this while visiting Italy and really enjoyed it. Out hostess had made fresh pesto for it but I have yet to give that a go, I can never keep my basil alive in sufficient quantity for long enough! I would never have seen a recipe for this and made it, or ordered it in a restaurant, which is a shame. I would have been put off by the potato/pasta combo (carbalicious!) and also, I keep telling myself I don’t like green pesto… clearly, I don’t know what I’m talking about!
It’s really nice and filling, totally hits a spot and gets some much needed vegetable into my diet. I’m starting to notice that I’m not eating many varieties of vegetables. Mostly because it’s hard keeping them in stock when there’s just one of me as they go off too quickly. I try to buy fresh from the market at lunch for that evening’s meal but that requires me to be organised and actually plan what I’m having ahead of time, which is not a strong point! Recently I have stocked my freezer with green vegetables, which I am usually lacking on hand. I now have an ample sufficiency of spinach, green beans, edamame, sweetcorn (yellow I know, but still present!) and peas. Now I can throw a few handfuls of these things in whenever I want them and hopefully get some much needed vitamins back in my diet!
Serves 2 – however many, really, just scale it up as needed.
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks
2 handfuls of green beans, frozen
~200g pasta
3 tbsp green pesto
fresh basil, roughly chopped*
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped**
~2 tbsp olive oil
– Bring to the boil a large, deep pan of salted water.
– Add the potatoes and cook for 10 minutes.
– Add the green beans and pasta and cook for the recommended time for your particular pasta, usually 10 minutes.
– Reserve about 100ml of the pasta water.
– Drain the rest of the water and return to the pan.
– Add the pesto, basil, garlic, oil and reserved water.
– Stir until well coated.
– Serve with parmesan.
*if using homemade pesto these are unneccessary but I find that no matter how good your bought pest it’s never that good!
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Anna in the kitchen 