Italian

Pesto Pasta Salad

Name: Pesto Pasta Salad
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 1 lb rotini pasta; 2 cups fresh basil; 1/3 cup pine nuts; 1/2 cup grated parmesan; 2 garlic cloves; 1/2 cup olive oil; 2 cups cherry tomatoes; 8 oz fresh mozzarella pearls; 1/2 tsp salt

Marco @marco_bologna

Pesto Pasta Salad is Italian home cooking, eaten at lunch. On the plate it is the dish at the centre. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.

30 min Medium Low sodium Vegetarian Halal Pescatarian

Ingredients

Serves

The quantities follow this count.

1 lb rotini pasta
2 cups fresh basil
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup grated parmesan
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cups cherry tomatoes
8 oz fresh mozzarella pearls
1/2 tsp salt

How to cook it

Cook the rotini in salted boiling water until al dente, about 9 minutes, then drain and cool under cold water.
Blend the basil, pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, and olive oil into a smooth pesto and season with salt.
Toss the cooled pasta with the pesto.
Fold in the cherry tomatoes and mozzarella pearls and serve chilled or at room temperature.

Watch how to cook Pesto Pasta Salad

Someone making it start to finish, so you can see what the steps look like.

Pesto Pasta Salad Play the video

Serve it with

A Italian lunch is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Pesto Pasta Salad, read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.

Something cool and fresh
- Insalata Caprese (Caprese Salad)
  
  10 min

Safe at your table

Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Pesto Pasta Salad carries tree nuts, dairy, and gluten. It is free of the remaining 7 allergens on that list.

Every tracked allergen in Pesto Pasta Salad
Allergen	In this dish	Cook this instead
Peanuts	No
Tree nuts	Yes	Affettati e Formaggio (Cold Cuts and Cheese Plate)
Dairy	Yes	Chicken Cacciatore
Gluten	Yes	Butternut Squash Risotto
Shellfish	No
Eggs	No
Soy	No
Fish	No
Sesame	No
Coconut	No

These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.

What it brings to the plate

Estimated, per serving

Calories: 630 kcal
Protein: 22 g
Carbs: 55 g
Fat: 36 g
Fiber: 3 g
Sugar: 3 g
Sodium: 400 mg
Saturated fat: 9 g

Estimated values. Actual nutrition varies with ingredients, brands, and how you cook.

When to cook it

Pesto Pasta Salad takes about 30 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at lunch. It is at its best in summer, which is when what goes into it is worth buying.