Trofie is a twisted pasta shape originating in Liguria, I love it because when you use it with pesto, basically any type of pesto, the sauce just clings to the shape and gets into all the grooves. I’ve used it with my parsley walnut pesto, kale and almond pesto and of course traditional basil pesto, and it’s all so good!
In the warmer months and with grilling season underway you can create a beautiful pasta dish with just a few ingredients and a pesto of your choice. I added grilled shrimp, grilled cauliflower and some fresh cherry tomatoes to mine. If you have a source to buy a good quality pesto you can even do that, but I encourage you to make your own.
Cook pasta according to the package directions and reserve a little pasta water to loosen up the pesto a bit. Toss the pasta into a bowl and add some fresh sliced tomatoes, no need to cook them.
Start adding in your pesto, I start with a quarter of a cup at a time, tossing gently and coating the trofie pasta using the reserved water if needed.
Just to give you an idea, I used a pound of pasta, a pound of shrimp and a little over a half a cup of basil pesto loosened up a bit.Transfer everything to a pretty platter and top it off with the grilled shrimp and grilled cauliflower.
A five ingredient meal that’s fresh, light and delicious!
(Proud Italian Cook is now on Instagram, follow along with me to see what I’m cooking up daily.)
Should this be served warm, or room temperature? I am making it for a Christmas buffet. I looks delicious!
Warm Dianne, best is right after it’s done, serve immediately
Trofie is my favorite pasta shape and you have created a glorious dish of pasta. I never thought to include the cauliflower with shrimp and pesto. Happy Memorial Day weekend.
I thought I might find it there… thank you! I will be visiting the store in Addison over the weekend!It looks so good and I have gulf shrimp that will work perfect in there!
Where did you find the pasta? I’m in the Chicago area as well 🙂
At Caputo’s Sharon, in the section where they have more gourmet type pasta, I think it was 3.99, hope you find it!
This looks fabulous! I could eat shrimp every day ; ) I hope our weather will improve, so my basil can grow and I can make fresh pesto, as I’ve used up all my frozen batch from last year. Trofie is a wonderful shape for pesto.
Looks wonderful!
The recipe sounds wonderful and your photos are mouth watering!! How fortunate for us that we have some delicious wild caught Georgia shrimp in our freezer and I was waiting for a special recipe for them. This is it!! I think I can get some of the pasta at our specialty shop here and the pesto. Unfortunately since we are not at home we don’t have our own pesto 🙁 . And we’ve never tried kale pesto — how wonderful, another recipe I can try. Grazie, Marie and have a great Memorial Day Weekend.
Same to you Marisa, have a great holiday and enjoy!
Love this recipe and it’s just perfect for a new pasta this summer!
My husband and I are making your scrumptious looking shrimp dish this weekend!!
Oh that makes me happy Patricia, enjoy!
I would love this – any pasta that holds pesto. I am liking the “new to me” mini San Marzano’s you have there. They seem to have less seeds and are low acid.