To the lay Indian, there are two types of pasta sauce- red and white. While I hate to sound snooty, I hate hearing the words 'red sauce/white sauce' even more. There are tons of pasta sauces out there: from the basic marinara (the so called red sauce) and bechamel (the white sauce), to puttanesca, caprese and carbonara. But going by the number of variations that I've written about, its no surprise that pesto is my favourite kind of sauce. Let me re-phrase that; home-made pesto is my favourite kind of pasta sauce. Once you make pesto at home, there is just no going back. I absolutely HATE store bought jarred stuff. And I hope someday you will too.
Note: My pesto in this recipe is really the star of the dish, so I haven't really added any additional meat or veggies. If you must add something to give your pasta dish some body, I'd recommend adding chicken, bacon or mushrooms.
Serves 4:
1 fistful of pasta ( I used Linguine)
Florets from 1 large Broccoli
1 cup basil leaves
1/2 cup pistachios
1/2 cup cheese
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
Cook pasta till al dente. While the pasta is boiling, boil the broccoli florets in another pot as well. Once the broccoli is cooked through, drain (reserve a cup of the broccoli water) and transfer to a blender. Add in the rest of the ingredients (minus the pasta) and blend till the mix forms a sauce like consistency. Add the broccoli water if the mixture is too thick.
In a large bowl, add the pasta and the freshly made pesto. Toss till combined and you are done. Really, its that quick and simple!
Because the pesto is made from a vegetable, I haven't added anything else to my pasta dish (except some mushrooms as garnish). It may get too vegetable-y (if that's a word?!) if you add in some more greens.
