Gluten-Free pasta with basil and kale creamy pesto, fresh tomatoes and broccoli, topped with pine nuts and shaved Parmesan cheese. This summer Pesto Pasta Salad is easy and delightful. The basil kale creamy pesto is the best you will ever eat!
Easy Pesto Pasta Salad is the perfect cold pasta salad recipe for summer picnics, BBQs, potlucks, or easy weekday lunches. This vibrant dish features al dente pasta tossed in a fresh basil pesto sauce, with juicy cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, and crisp veggies for added texture and flavor.
This make-ahead pesto pasta salad is ready in under 30 minutes and travels well, making it ideal for entertaining or meal prep. Whether you use homemade pesto or store-bought, this dish is a flavorful and refreshing way to enjoy a cold pasta salad with pesto any time of year.
If you don’t particularly love pesto sauce, I suggest that you play around to find a combination of herbs, nuts and flavors that you like. For instance, it took me a while to acquire the taste for basil pesto, and it wasn’t until I started mixing it with another type greens to balance the strong taste of basil, that I started to enjoy it.
Here are a few pesto combinations that you can try;
- basil and kale – good balancing flavor
- basil and arugula – a little on the peppery side
- basil and spinach – also a good balancing flavor
How do you make pesto from scratch?
Traditional pesto is made with basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan cheese and olive oil. However, as I mentioned before you can use a combination of greens, or skip the basil and use another green of choice.
Additionally, you can use different types of nuts besides pine nuts. Walnuts, pecans, pistachios, etc… again, the idea is that you find a combination you like.
To make pesto, combine the basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil in a food processor and pulse until everything has been broken down to a grainy but uniform mixture.
Pesto can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
about this pesto pasta salad…
For this recipe I used gluten-free lentil pasta and undercooked by 1-2 minutes, as I always do whenever I made pasta salads. The basil and kale pesto is the perfect balance of flavors. Fresh tomatoes and broccoli adds a pop of color and good balance to the recipe. Top with crunchy pine nuts and grated Parmesan cheese.
what to serve this pesto pasta salad with:
Fish in Foil with Vegetables or these
Sausage and Veggies Kabobs that are easy and a great summer meal.
Tropical Summer Fruit Salad for a refreshing appetizer or dessert that everyone will love.
Basil Kale Pesto Pasta Salad
Ingredients
Pasta Salad
- 1 lb gluten-free pasta
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup broccoli florets
- 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
- 1 tbsp parmesan cheese
Basil Kale Pesto
- 2 cups basil
- 1 cup kale
- 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano cheese
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup pine nuts
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 pinch salt and ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package instructions. Whenever I make pasta salads I like to undercook the pasta by 1-2 minutes. Drain and set aside
- Wash and cut up tomatoes, broccoli and onion. Set aside.
- In a food processor add in basil, kale and pine nuts. Give it a pulse until greens have broken down to a thick paste. Then add in parmesan cheese, oil, garlic and season with salt and pepper. Remember the parmesan cheese is already salty, depending on your taste you may not need to add much salt at all. Pulse until incorporated. Pesto will still be grainy. If needed add 1-2 tbsp of water to thin it down.
- Add pasta, veggies and 1 cup of pesto to a large bowl and mix to combine. You can add more pesto if you like. This recipe yield about 2 cups of pesto so you should have some leftover to use later on. You can freeze the leftover pesto or use within 1 week.
- Top pesto pasta salad with pine nuts a drizzle of olive oil. Serve
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
So good. YUM!
Thanks 🙂