Basil Pesto Pasta that Melts My Heart

What’s in this pesto pasta that I am blogging about it? It’s simple with no cooking required save for boiling the pasta. You only need to mix the pesto ingredients using a food processor or a blender, combine the mixture with the hot pasta noodles and voila! What do you get? A healthy, no-meat dish that is surprisingly loved by kids, which goes to prove that kids have a simple taste. I may be generalizing, but, seeing how my two children devoured it, and then hearing about how my three-year old niece also loved it (I had some sent to her), being the picky eaters they are, it’s safe to say so, I suppose.

And you know why else this is very important? My son, out of the blue, embraced and kissed me saying, “Ma, I love you, no matter what, through thick and thin.” And this pasta was the trigger! He must have been overwhelmed with gratefulness seeing me drop by the grocery, after fetching him from school, to grab fresh basil, olive oil and walnuts, and then go straight to the kitchen to prepare his favorite pasta. He had ordered it at Amici the couple of times he went there, and he could easily finish a serving for two.

Did it compare with Amici’s? Honestly, in all humility, it did! J

And I want to share with you how I did it. After months of browsing, looking up pesto recipes, and after several packs of basil gone rotten in my fridge, I finally made my first attempt at what turned out to be almost like a no-brainer kind of cooking:

• Cook about 350 grams (or about a third of 1 kg pack) of spaghetti noodles.
• Mix about about 2 cups of basil, 3 cloves of garlic, about 3 tablespoons of walnuts and 70 ml of olive oil in a food processor. Halfway, add in another 70 ml of olive oil to fully coat the dry ingredients. 
• Drain the pasta and transfer back into the pot. Pour the pesto over the noodles, grate cheddar cheese, and stir. Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese.

Try it! You won’t regret it. I spent roughly less than PHP200 or less than USD5, and this pasta dish was shared by 3 adults and 3 children! Imagine how cheap that is. I bought an 8-oz can of walnuts for PHP300, but only used a fourth of it, so that leaves me with enough walnuts for three more meals! Happiness.