Creamy-Pesto Pasta

By -


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

Post a Comment

Welcome to our food blog. Please feel free to leave your comments or suggestions for improvements in a recipe. If you try any of the recipes here, please send us your feedback or pictures and we will post it on the blog.

Popular posts from this blog

Vegetarian Thai Red Curry

By -
Image
Looks like I am on a curry spree! One of my favorite cuisines on this planet, even talking about it makes my mouth water...slurp! I suddenly thought about Thai food today and luckily I had all the basic ingredients in my pantry so tonight's dinner was the Thai Red Curry! Aside, I have always been wary of using others' recipes and have had many discussions with my co-blogger and other close friends about copyright and related topics. While we have come across people who steal pictures from the original recipe and claim it as their own (yes, unfortunately such creeps do exist!), I have also seen bloggers who take copyright to a whole new level by picking open fights on blogs and "walls" (we definitely try to stay away from this kind!).I came across a useful  article   today on foodblogforum that talks about recipe-attribution-etiquettes, I thought it might be worth sharing here. After that quick sanity check, back to my red curry :) The curries of Thailand are cat
Read more

Quinoa Upma

By -
Image
Upma is a comfort food in South India. Rava, semiya, rice, bread - no matter what your base ingredient is - making upma can never be difficult and a basic upma is always a Quick Fix Recipe! This time I decided to make upma with a new ingredient, something I have been wanting to try for a long time now - Quinoa!! Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah ) is a very-high-protein grain thus making it an unusually complete protein source especially for vegetarians and vegans. The grain is native to South America and was once considered the "mother grain" by the Incas. Click here for more information and for the nutritional benefits of Quinoa. Quinoa may not be available in your regular grocery store, look for it in a health food store. I picked up mine from Whole Foods. Ingredients: Quinoa - 1/2 cup Garlic - 2 medium sized pods, chopped 1/2 inch size Onion - 1/4 of a big onion, chopped 1/2 inch size Vegetables (carrot, peas, beans) - 1/4 cup, finely chopped (I was not fully prepared w
Read more

Apricot Shortbread Cookies

By -
Image
Nothing like a crispy, flaky, buttery shortbread cookie, my favorite pairing for a hot cup of  cafe con leche ! The classic shortbread is a very simple recipe with just 3 main ingredients: sugar, flour and butter. Yet, it took me quite some time to bake a batch of perfect shortbread cookies. From  Sandra Lee's  to a bunch of other recipes, my experiments have been disastrous flops! The cookies either flattened out like a chip or turned too brown too fast. I wrote to several expert bakers, read a million baking blogs, did a zillion Google searches and then finally shelved the cookie project! After 1.5 years, I came across Brady Evans' shortbread cookies last week on  Honest Cooking . I decided to give this one more chance and flagged it for a Sunday project. Success! at last!! Victory is (indeed) "sweetest" when you've known defeat! :))  Apricot Shortbread Cookies Recipe courtesy: Brady Evans Ingredients: All purpose flour - 2 cups, sifted Confectioner&
Read more