Trying to plan your weeknight dinner? Want it to be simple but still have all the flavor? Let’s guess – you want it to take no more than 20 mins to make? Try this basil pesto with linguini and enjoy your evening with plenty of time before bed!
Pesto is certainly one of the easiest and yummiest quick foods I know. I shared a recipe for Pesto Rosso, Snap Pea Pesto and a Wild Garlic Pesto with you. But to be completely honest, this one is by far our favourite. Nothing can beat a traditional Italian cuisine! 
We are lucky enough to have big bushes of basil growing in this climate all year around. It’s not the soft leaves kind, but something between Thai Basil and the one I know from Europe. The taste is practically the same, so use whatever you have on hand. But yeah, all this basil is straight from our garden! When I thought about the Parmigiano and how to replace it, I thought about the vegan version of cheese. It’s usually made with cashew nuts, but I didn’t want to complicate things. So I simply used raw nuts and added some lemon juice. You won’t believe how good it tastes! Paired with some roasted cherry tomatoes and black Spanish olives it makes your taste buds go wild. The best part is you can have it prepared in under 20 minutes! Hello, my new favourite dinner.
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
Ingredients
Basil Pesto
- 50 g 2 cups fresh basil leaves
- 35 g 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 35 g 1/4 cup cashew nuts
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 tsp salt
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 80 ml 1/3 cup virgin olive oil
The sauce
- 250 g linguini
- 150 g cherry tomatoes (about 1 cup)
- 30 g black olives (about 10)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt (to taste)
Instructions
Basil Pesto
- Pulse together pine nuts, cashew nuts and peeled garlic cloves, until you get small pieces.
- Add fresh basil leaves, salt, lemon juice and pulse again.
- Lastly add the olive oil and mix until combined.
The Sauce
- Cook the linguine in salted boiling water al dente.
- Meanwhile heat up the olive oil in a small pan and quickly roast the tomatoes and olives. Add some salt.
- Toss the linguine with basil pesto (use about 2 tablespoons) and serve with roasted tomatoes and olives, garnished with fresh basil.
Notes
- Store the pesto in cover dish in refrigerator for up to a week.
- Category: Main
