by monkeymom
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Photo by monkeymom
monkeymom's Notes:
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1/2 pound
pasta (penne, gemelli, corkscrew, or shells)
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12 ounces
bag of baby spinach
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1/3 cup
extra virgin olive oil
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1/3 cup
walnuts
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1-2 tablespoon
salt
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1 cup
freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese (or more, to suit your taste)
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3
cloves of garlic
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1
pint cherry tomatoes
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1
handful of toasted pine nuts
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Bring large pot of water to boil. Add pasta and cook for recommended time.
Ask the hotline about this step!While the pasta is cooking, add 2/3 of the spinach into a food processor. Add olive oil, walnuts, garlic and salt. Process until you get desired texture – I prefer some slight chunks but you can also process it very smooth.
Ask the hotline about this step!When pasta is done cooking, drain and rinse or shock pasta in cold water to stop the cooking process and cool the pasta. Put pasta into a large salad bowl.
Ask the hotline about this step!Add 2/3 of spinach pesto mixture to pasta and stir to coat. Sprinkle in ¾ of the cheese while mixing to distribute. Check seasoning and add salt or more cheese if necessary. If taking this to a potluck, here is a good stopping point. You can dress the salad and toss all the ingredients together right before serving to make sure the spinach doesn’t wilt.
Ask the hotline about this step!Add rest of spinach to bowl and most of tomatoes. Squeeze a little lemon juice onto leaves and add the rest of the pesto and a sprinkling of salt. Toss leaves to coat.
Ask the hotline about this step!Bring pasta up from bottom and toss with greens. Add remaining tomatoes, pine nuts and cheese before serving.
Ask the hotline about this step!This is a great travelling recipe!
Hi testkitchenette...it's my go to recipe for crowds as it is quick to make too.
This sounds great and looks beautiful! I love gemelli. Very nice picture. Thanks for recipe!
Thanks mrslarkin! We had it for dinner tonight with some sauteed shrimp. My husband was happy it was meatloaf and spinach week!
Kim is a pastry chef & author of the award-winning whole grain baking book Good to the Grain.
This looks and sounds delicious!! And I LOVE Gayle's Bakery! I worked on a project for a year on a college campus near there and got to eat there many days. Even today if I'm anywhere near there, I'll detour it over to Gayle's to get a bunch of stuff to take home to feast on. I'll definitely be making this in the near future.