DIY basil pesto tagliatelle with tomatoes, beans & greens
30 mins
Not Too Tricky
serves 2
About the recipe
I’ve shown you how to make pesto here – it’s a great skill to master as it goes well with so many different dishes, from pasta to grilled and roasted meats to vegetables. Tossed through tagliatelle and green veggies, then served with garlicky rosemary cannellini beans and pops of softened cherry tomatoes, this is an absolute winner of a dish. Cannellini beans are not only a great veggie source of protein and high in fibre, they’re also a source of vitamin C and magnesium, a mineral our body uses to make protein and help our muscles to function properly. Super-healthy and tasty, too.
Ingredients
1 clove of garlic
½ a bunch of fresh basil (15g)
20g ground almonds
extra virgin olive oil
20g Italian hard cheese
1 lemon
1 sprig of fresh rosemary
olive oil
1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans
120g ripe cherry tomatoes
200g dried tagliatelle
120g green beans
100g baby spinach
Method
- To make the pesto, peel and finely chop the garlic, then pick and very finely chop the basil leaves, reserving a few baby leaves for garnish.
- Place the chopped basil into a bowl with the ground almonds, just under half the garlic and 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Finely grate in half the cheese, add a squeeze of lemon juice and season to taste with sea salt and black pepper, if needed. Mix until well combined and set aside (if you have a pestle and mortar, you can use this to muddle the pesto ingredients together).
- Bring a pan of salted water to boil over a medium heat, then pick and finely chop the rosemary leaves.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, add the remaining garlic and all of the rosemary, then cook for 2 minutes, or until the garlic is lightly golden.
- Turn the heat down to low, then drain and add half the cannellini beans (keep the rest for another day). Halve and add the tomatoes and cook for 8 minutes, or until the tomatoes have broken down and released their juices, stirring occasionally.
- Meanwhile, cook the tagliatelle in the pan of boiling salted water for 6 minutes, or until al dente, which means that it should be soft enough to eat, but still have a bit of bite and firmness to it.
- Meanwhile, trim the beans, then cook with the pasta for the final 4 minutes, adding the spinach for the last 30 seconds.
- Scoop out a mug of cooking water, then drain the pasta and veg in a colander and return to the pan.
- Stir in the pesto, adding a little cooking water to loosen, if needed. Season to taste.
- Divide between your bowls, spooning over the tomatoes and beans, scatter with the reserved basil leaves and add a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to each. Finely grate the remaining cheese over the top and tuck in!
Tags
