Garlic Mushroom Pesto Pasta
A super simple, tasty vegetarian dinner that will never let you down! Roasted garlic mushrooms are tossed with homemade (or store bought) pesto and topped with a dollop of soft ricotta cheese for an incredible mix of flavors and textures.
Ingredients
- 1 lb (16 oz) chestnut mushrooms, halved or sliced
- 3 Tbsp (40 g) butter
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup (120 ml) pesto , The quantity is very approximate - see notes
- 11 oz (11 oz) spaghetti, or any other long pasta shape - angel hair, linguine, bucatini, etc
- 6 Tbsp soft cheese
- 2 Tbsp grated parmesan or Italian hard cheese, for topping - see notes
- 1 lemon, for juicing
Homemade Pesto Recipe
- 3 Tbsp pine nuts
- 4-5 cups (75-100 g) basil leaves, or a combination of basil and baby spinach
- ⅓ cup (45 g) grated parmesan or Italian hard cheese, grated
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 lemon, juiced
- ⅓ cup (90 ml) olive oil, you may want more, up to 1/2 cup
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 220C / 430F.
- If you're making the homemade pesto, do it first while the oven preheats - Toast your pine nuts by heating a frying pan on a low heat, without any oil, and add the pine nuts for a minute or two, mixing regularly, until they're lightly browned and smelling toasty. Then add the garlic, spinach and MOST (about 2/3rds) of the basil, pine nuts and cheese to your food processor or mini chopper. Add a few grinds of salt and blend until finely chopped. Add the lemon juice and blend, slowly adding the oil to the mixture, until smooth. Now add the reserved basil, pine nuts and cheese into the food processor with the remaining oil. Pulse gently until these ingredients are incorporated into the pesto but in larger pieces. Add more oil if you think it needs it.
- Prepare the mushrooms. Melt the butter in the microwave in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the olive oil, garlic and then the mushrooms. Toss to coat the mushrooms in the garlic butter, then add salt and pepper if desired.
- Scatter on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 20 minutes, or until they are browned.
- Boil the pasta according to package instructions. Once it is cooked, you can reserve a little cooking water before draining if the pesto you're using is homemade and chunky and might need thinning out (it's less likely to need it if it's a jarred pesto as those are usually thin and oily).
- Add the pesto to the pasta, and some cooking water if needed to smooth it out.
- Add in the mushrooms and toss to combine.
- Spoon into bowls and top with any additional toppings you like: a dollop of soft cheese, a sprinkle of parmesan, or a squeeze of lemon juice.
Notes
Pesto Quantities - it's really hard to give you a quantity for the pesto, because some homemade pesto is really chunky and thick, while a store bought pesto is more silky and oily and you'd go for a much lighter coating. Different pasta shapes will also need more or less. I'd approach this recipe with a fresh batch of pesto and enjoy leftovers if you have them. If you are using leftovers for this recipe and you find you don't have quite enough, maybe add a little cream or extra pasta cooking water, butter or olive oil to stretch things out.
Portions - I've called this three portions. Realistically, you'd either have two adult portions + leftovers for lunch the next day, or be able to divide between two adults and two children. It's not quite four adult portions, unless there is a side dish. And scaling up the pasta and pesto quantities a little would help it stretch.
Nutritional information is based on a standard basil pesto.
Parmesan or Italian hard cheese - If you're in the EU, anything labelled parmesan won't be suitable for vegetarians due to the use of animal rennet (outside the EU, this is not always the case unless it's labelled as DOP Parmesan) so if you need this to be vegetarian friendly, find an Italian hard cheese with vegetarian rennet. They're available in all UK supermarkets.
Calories: 734kcal, Carbohydrates: 85g, Protein: 24g, Fat: 34g, Saturated Fat: 15g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 9g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 61mg, Sodium: 417mg, Potassium: 1021mg, Fiber: 5g, Sugar: 6g, Vitamin A: 1045IU, Calcium: 214mg, Iron: 2mg