Parsley Pesto Pasta

The second recipe with items from my herb garden! An unconventional variation of pesto, using fresh parsley and walnuts, tossed with curly pasta. Heavenly. Can you tell I'm enjoying my herb garden?

Garden fresh parsley...

I had an abundance of parsley with my first harvest. I use a lot of parsley, I usually buy a bundle a week. It brightens up so many dishes, smells wonderful, and bonus- freshens your breath. But I had ALOT of parsley. What's a girl to do? 

Google, of course. Which is where I found a wonderful idea for parsley pesto on Simply Recipes. I roughed up the original recipe by throwing some basil in for good measure, but for the most part, stuck to it. I really, really liked it. Obviously, using parsley instead of basil gave the pesto a drastically different flavor. I loved the results! Parsley pesto has such a different, almost earthy taste to it. Plus, this recipe utilizes walnuts instead of pine nuts. Believe it or not, you can taste the difference.

Do I need to extoll the virtues of walnuts to everyone? I don't think that's even necessary. 

Doesn't it look almost identical to its basil counterpart?

Pair this pesto with pasta, then serve with a side salad and a glass of white. A perfectly light summer meal. Not to mention that if you prepare your pesto ahead of time, it will only take you about 15 minutes at dinner time to get it on the table. Which means more time to go outside and enjoy the sunshine :)

Today was grocery shopping day for me. I was completely and utterly out of bird seed, which means my shopping trip needed to include Walmart. Ugh. I hate the Mart. I trekked there anyway though, and of course, got lost in the garden section. And emerged with cucumber, 2 types of lettuce, chard, and green pepper seeds. Naturally, I was most excited to get my arse home and plant those seeds. All this made the chore of going to Walmart somewhat better. Even after I waited in line for 15 minutes behind the lady who had 50-$1 items in her cart, and I swear, half of them didn't have labels. But I digress. I've been bit hard by the gardening bug this year! The hubby and I decided not to put the garden in this summer (sad face), but I've got quite the container garden occurring on the "patio". I'm so glad the hubby had the forethought to put some concrete out back :)

One last note- I recommend using flat-leaf parsley for this pesto. I've always read that curly parsley is for garnish, flat-leaf parsley is for eating. I've never wavered, I just abide by this foodie rule.

Happy Tuesday!

Ingredients (serves 4):

8 oz dried fusili pasta, cooked to package directions

2 cups fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 cup walnuts

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

1 tbsp garlic, minced

1/2- 3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup olive oil

Directions:

1. Combine parsley through salt in food processor. Pulse a couple of times. With food processor running, pour olive oil through the shoot. Continue to pulse until olive oil is emulsified.

2. Start by adding 1/2 cup of pesto to the pasta. Toss to combine. Add more pesto to taste. Serve immediately. Store any remaining pesto in fridge, up to 2 weeks. 

Printable Recipe

Pesto recipe adapted from Simply Recipes.

Linked to: Tickle My Tastebuds Tuesdays, Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday