Spring Green Pasta with Parsley Walnut Pesto
 
Ingredients
  • For the Parsley Walnut Pesto
  • 2 cups fresh parsley
  • ½ cup toasted walnuts
  • ½ cup grated parmesan or romano
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • juice of ½ lemon
  • pinch of salt and pepper
  • ½ to ¾ cup of olive oil
  • For the Pasta
  • ½ lb. spaghetti or linguine
  • 2 medium zucchini julienned
  • 1 yellow squash julienned
  • 1 lb. small asparagus cut on the diagonal
  • ½ cup of peas
  • a good handful of fresh baby spinach
  • reserved ½ cup of pasta water
Instructions
  1. For the Parsley Pesto, place parsley, garlic and toasted walnuts in food processor bowl, pulse until well incorporated. Add in remaining ingredients and process until you get a nice smooth consistency
  2. For the pasta, prepare your squash first by making thin strips julienne style, you can do this with a mandoline, a julienne vegetable peeler, or by hand cutting planks and then making the strips with the tip of your knife like in the photo above. When finished, quickly saute until slightly wilted, a minute or two.
  3. Saute the peas and asparagus together in a little olive oil just until al`dente tender. set aside.
  4. Cook pasta and reserve some of the pasta water. When finished, toss hot pasta into a large bowl along with all the other vegetables, the peas, asparagus, squash and spinach. Add 2 or 3 heaping tablespoons of the pesto, adding more if needed and to your taste. If you want to thin it out add some of the pasta water.
  5. The leftover pesto keeps well in the fridge.
Recipe by Proud Italian Cook at https://www.prouditaliancook.com/2013/04/spring-green-pasta-with-parsley-walnut-pesto.html