Creamy-Pesto Pasta

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For this year's holiday dinner, I decided to stick to a pasta dish for the main course and I wanted something filling yet not too heavy. Nalini suggested a creamy-pesto pasta with roasted corn and grape tomatoes. Her sauce made a yummy base, she prepares a roux and adds some home made pesto to it. The whole milk and home-made pesto give it a rich taste and texture and needless to say, the pasta was a BIG HIT at the party! 

This week I wanted to recreate that pasta but did not have time to make the sauce from scratch. I came across a recipe that used mayonnaise for a creamy pink sauce. Well, absolutely no comparisons to Nalini's original home made version but this definitely makes for a quick-fix creamy pesto sauce!



Creamy-Pesto Pasta with Mayonnaise

Ingredients:
Mayonnaise - 2-3 tbsp, I used a light mayo 
Pesto - 2 tbsp, I used Costco's
Warm 2% milk - 1/4 cup or less 

Add the above according to your preference. Add more milk if you like a more saucy pasta!

Grape tomatoes - 1/2 cup
Frozen artichokes - 1/2 cup, thawed or microwaved and chopped
Capsicum - 1/4 cup, chopped to 1" strips
Frozen peas - 1/4 cup
Garlic - 2 pods
EVOO - 2 tbsp
Pasta - 1 lb, I used a combination of some leftover farfalle and radiatori

Cook the pasta as per instructions on the box.

Mix the mayo and pesto, for the quantity go with you taste buds! I also added some warm milk to thin it out a little bit. 

Heat the oil in a pan and grate the garlic pods into it, add the tomatoes, mix and cover. They should pop/burst in a few minutes, when they look a bit roasted add the capsicum and peas, after about 30 seconds mix in the pasta and finally add the artichokes, mix well and take it out in your serving dish. Now pour the pesto sauce over and mix. Sprinkle some salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and I also used some dried basil!



Comments

  1. maha...January 4, 2012 at 4:15 PM

    yummm! i shld try it too once i recover....luv the 2nd pic of the pasta

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anuja KrishnanJanuary 4, 2012 at 5:01 PM

    Thanks Maha

    ReplyDelete
  3. NitikaJanuary 6, 2012 at 1:08 PM

    Love the cake, Anu. Did you make it? Pasta looks yummy! I am taking a forkful. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anuja KrishnanJanuary 6, 2012 at 2:15 PM

    No, I did not bake that cake, that's the single layer berry cake from Whole Foods - YUM!

    Thank you :)

    ReplyDelete

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