Pesto Pasta Salad
Gluten-free pasta salad with basil and kale creamy pesto, cherry tomatoes and broccoli topped with crunchy pine nuts
Servings: 8 servings
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