One of the best dishes my mom made growing up was discovered later (highschool time I believe) is something we affectionately called “Yummy Pasta.” I think it’s great for summer with the fresh tomatoes, however, pine nuts have become SUPER expensive. Therefore it is great to know someone in the nut industry. THANKS TRAVIS!!!
It is SO easy and quick to make, and you can make a big batch and have it for multiple meals. You can also make the pesto sauce in advance and freeze it until you’re ready.
I made the sauce as the recipe called for, but I added some of the fresh basil and pine nuts at the end and chopped it only a few seconds so it had more texture. It came out quite yummy!
As a side, Mike decided to whip up some spinach and mushrooms with shallots and garlic. It was absolutely scrumptious and I was very excited to see Mike cooking off the cuff. I’m pretty sure he threw everything into the pan and just cooked it until it was all soft.
Here is the Yummy Pasta Recipe (you can adjust the amounts if you want to make more or less):
Ingredients
- One box of mini penne pasta
- One ball of fresh mozzarella, cut into cubes
- One container of grape/cherry tomatoes, cut in half
- 2/3 cup of pine nuts (split in half so it’s 1/3 in each part of the recipe below)
- 3/4 cup of fresh basil (or to taste), stems removed and cut up leaves
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup of olive oil
- Salt, Pepper, and Garlic Powder to taste
Directions
- Cook pasta as directed
- While pasta is cooking, cut up all ingredients
- Put oil, basil, and 1/3 cup pine nuts into a food processor and blend to desired texture (add garlic powder at this stage if you like garlic)
- Drain pasta
- Toss basil mixture into pasta
- Add additional 1/3 cup of pine nuts (I use more since I love them)
- Carefully fold in tomatoes and mozzarella
- Salt and pepper to taste
Happy Nomming!
