A super quick delicious and nutritious weeknight dinner than you can whip up in less than 25 minutes. Beautifully creamy yet light avocado sauce with sweet roasted plum tomatoes and crunchy toasted pine nuts. Loved equally by both vegans and meat-eaters this avocado pesto pasta is sure to become a new favourite.
Preheat the grill to medium/high heat.
Add all the pesto ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. If your blender is having trouble here you can add a little more water to loosen the sauce.
Place the tomatoes onto a baking sheet with the cut side up and place under the grill for 10 minutes until soft and slightly charred.
Meanwhile bring a pan of salted water to a boil and add the pasta. Lower the heat slightly and cook for the time indicated on the packet (mine was 7-8 minutes) until tender. Drain and return to the sauce pan.
To assemble, place 1/2 of the pesto (you can adjust this amount according to how much sauce you like), 3/4 of the tomatoes and 1/2 of the toasted pine nuts into the pan with the drained pasta. Stir well. Divide the pasta between two bowls before garnishing with the remaining tomatoes and pine nuts.
This avocado pesto pasta is great warm or cold and makes a brilliant packed lunch. Just allow the pasta to completely cool before refrigerating.
Personally I would avoid using refined white pasta where possible. For this recipe I like using brown rice pasta, but great alternatives would be spelt, buckwheat or wholewheat pasta.
If you are using spaghetti as I have done, allow 100g of pasta per person. If you are using fresh pasta, allow 110g per person.
To toast your pine nut, gently fry them in a dry pan over a medium heat for a 2-3 minutes until golden brown. Be really careful not to burn them and watch them at all times!!
I like to make a double quantity of the avocado pesto and keep some of it in the fridge to dollop on all sort of things! You can store it in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Recipe courtesy of georgieeats.co.uk