Roasted asparagus pesto pasta makes a delightful summer meal. We roast our asparagus in long, thin strands which can be twirled on your fork with the spaghetti. You can use my homemade basil pesto recipe or a premade pesto to make things easier.
3-4cups(75g)basil leaves, feel free to swap in some cilantro or parsley
1cup(30g)baby spinach, optional
⅓cup(45g)parmesan or Italian hard cheese, grated
2clovesgarlic
1lemon, juiced
⅓cup(80ml)olive oil, you may want more, up to 1/2 cup
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C / 360F.
Prepare the asparagus. Remove the tough stems, then slice the thicker stalks into quarters and the thinner stalks into halves lengthways. Lay them out across two baking sheets, toss with oil and season with salt and pepper.Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. At the halfway point, it's a good idea to go in and switch the position of the two baking trays so that one isn't on the lower shelf the entire time.
18 oz asparagus
If you're making your pesto from scratch, do that now. Toast your pine nuts in a dry hot pan until just starting to brown. Add to a food processor with the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth (if you prefer a chunkier pesto, hold back on some of the cheese and basil and pulse that through in the end to keep some larger pieces).
3 Tbsp pine nuts, 3-4 cups basil leaves, 1/3 cup parmesan or Italian hard cheese, 2 cloves garlic, 1 lemon, 1/3 cup olive oil, 1 cup baby spinach
Once the asparagus has about 15 minutes left on the clock, start boiling your pasta. Once it is cooked al dente, drain and toss with most of the pesto (hold a couple tablespoons of pesto back for now) in a large serving bowl.
10.5 oz spaghetti
Check on the asparagus - it is ready once it has reduced in size and is flexible enough to bend when picked up.
Squeeze lemon juice over all of the asparagus.
1 lemon wedge
Now add the asparagus to the serving bowl with the pesto spaghetti. Toss through so that the asparagus is well integrated with the spaghetti. Add the rest of the pesto as you are mixing it together. Add additional cheese to the top and serve immediately.