We are just about to wrap up our two week trip at our home away from home in the mountains. At the start of out vacation we were welcomed by a huge order or fresh and fabulous food delivered by Black Canyon Foods. This was my first time ordering from these folks and this must happen every visit to Colorado. In our order was a Cilantro Pesto sauce that was gone in seconds. It was time to make my own version!
With just a few items left in the fridge and pantry I put myself up to the challenge of using up every last bit of what we have left. I refuse to waste food, sooooo with a heap of baby spinach, toasted walnuts, parmesan and olive oil our pesto sauce was put together in minutes.
My kids and husband love this curly swirly rainbow hued pasta. It is an irresistible subject for photography.
Grab a few handfuls of baby spinach to get a dazzling green color…
What is not to love about a sauce that can be whizzed up in seconds in your food processor? The ingredients don’t need to be fussy or carefully measured out. Choose you greens, nuts and cheese according to what you have lying around. No heat required.
My recipe calls for just a few servings, but you can make a whole lot more and enjoy it for a few days worth of lunch box meals and dinners.
You can easily make this a grain free or gluten free meal by simply omitting the pasta. I enjoy my pesto spooned over fried eggs, which makes this a low carb-grain free meal. I also toss a few spoonfuls in my salads as a dressing. You can thin it out with more olive oil if you wish.
Pesto with quinoa or gluten free pasta is wonderfully tasty too. Toss in some chunks of grilled chicken, slabs of seared tuna or tofu for extra protein.
We love coming into hearty, healthy meals after hitting it hard on the slopes.
Serve hot, cold or anywhere in between.
Do you have a favorite pesto recipe? What ingredients do you add to yours?
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Pesto Recipe Links
- Asian Pesto Nourish Network
- Arugula Pesto Heather’s Dish
- Pesto Genovese The World of Food and Cooking
- Pumpkin Seed Pesto The Flourishing Foodie
- Vegan Basil Pesto eCurry
Gorgeous Marla! Looks like the perfect pesto pasta 🙂 xoxo
I love everything about this pasta dish! Nice!
I have never made homemade pesto. I think this recipe is a great starting point. Thanks Marla!
Allison, you must make some homemade pesto. It takes just seconds and is well worth the effort!
beautiful marla! and so healthy!
This looks great! Spinach is one of my favorite foods just because it’s so versatile. It can go into sweet smoothies, sautéed, raw in salads and on sandwiches, and made into pesto. Really, what can’t you do with Spinach? We buy it by the box in our house.
Shawna, it is great how versatile spinach is. I need to try a smoothie with it, been seeing loads of great recipes around the web. Very smart to buy it by the box as it does go quickly!
I love the rainbow curled pasta too! It’s so fun. We haven’t seen more than an inch of snow where I live all winter, which is so strange. I’d kill to go snowboarding soon! Enjoy the rest of your trip.
Thanks Grace, they had a slow start here with the snow ~ but thankfully the weather caught up & it has been making up for lost time!
Give me any green pesto and I am a happy girl. It looks so fabulous and the little twirly swirly pastas are to die for 😉 Thank you so much for he link. Hugs.
I love original pestos and this one is gorgeous! The pasta are wonderful too. So pretty.
Cheers,
Rosa
Love pesto. I usually make mine dairy-free with nutritional yeast instead of cheese, and no one can ever tell the difference!
Gorgeous pictures, as always 😀 Have a fabulous last day in the mountains!
Alex, that is a great idea to make this a vegan recipe. Thanks for the helpful tip, must try!
Where do you get that curly rainbow pasta? It’s lovely!
Anna, that pasta was actually part of my order from Black Canyon Foods You can also find those veggie corkscrews here on Amazon.com.
I adore that pasta, Marla! Pesto is a go-to for me. So quick and simple and my husband and I both love it. Can’t wait to try this one!
Love the flavors that you combined for this dish, Marla! I’ve never eaten or made spinach pesto but I’d love to try. Thanks for sharing. Have a wonderful weekend!
yum! I am so making this
I love pesto. I’m seriously wishing I had a bowl of this right now, and it’s only 9 a.m. Gorgeous.
I love using spinach in pesto! Looks delicious!
I made tons of basil pesto this summer when it was plentiful. I will definitely give this a try!
Love this pesto recipe!
Love those swirly pasta pieces and this pesto sounds really good – thanks for inspiration – was feeling in need of the color boost!
Pesto looks wonderful and can’t believe your trip is wrapping up…I hope you’ve had a mental and soul-recharging kind of trip. You deserve it and I know it’s your happy place 🙂
Gorgeous Marla! I love making homemade pesto sauces! So refreshing and yummy!!
I get such a kick out of “use whatever’s in the kitchen” recipes. Like you, I can’t stand wasting food. It’s kind of fun to thing of new ways to use ingredients that I already have available!
Looks fabolous! I have a secret love for Pesto, I don’t make it nearly enough!
I love pesto of any kind! Pretty pasta!
Pesto is a TWU LUV of mine. I smear it on like a face mask and lick it off.
OKAY I DON’T!
…maybe.
Delicious pesto and pictures. Oh how I love Colorado. Enjoy the rest of your time there. Btw, made your no-bake chocolate breakfast cake and it was awesome 🙂
I love all pesto really, but I just saw a recipe for arugula pesto I’m dying to give a whirl, as I’ve never had arugula pesto before. And that colored pasta really does make for some gorgeous photos!
I just made a very similar pesto the other night. There’s something about cold weather and pesto that I love!
We love pesto in our house. During the summer, we make garlic scape pesto, and have included swiss chard leaves in it as well.
Delicious! I love pesto but I have never actually made it with walnuts. I would love to make walnut-and-arugula pesto now that spring is around the corner.
I love a good arugula pesto. Over pasta, chicken, veggies – it’s one of my favorites! Your time in Telluride looks like such fun. I hope you all come back fully rested!
Great way to use up ingredients-I love a good pesto! Looks like the perfect addition to any pasta!
Love pesto and pasta. And this one looks just as good as any I’ve had. Love it Marla!
I’ve thought of you often over the past couple of weeks, knowing you are in your favorite place in the world. This looks like a wonderful meal to come home to after a day of skiing or snowshoeing. You just can’t beat homemade pesto.
This is stunning. The pasta is the perfect touch because it’s totally unexpected! Beautiful dish!
Marla, I’m going to make this healthy & delish pasta dish for my Cardiologist hubby…he loves spinach and always preaches about omega-3 in walnuts!
Love the colorful pasta!
Thanks for the link, Marla! Your photos are gorgeous. I also have to put in a plug for pounding pestos in a mortar and pestle. My 5-year old daughter LOVES to do it, and it doesn’t take that much more time than a food processor. In fact, there have been many times when I’ve intended to whiz, but my daughter is so enthusiastic about “helping” me in the kitchen that I pull out the mortar and pestle and let HER make the pesto instead! 😉
Marla–this looks great! We must be on the same page, because I made a green pesto this week too. Kale + almonds. My kids love “special green pasta” too. I will have to try your version soon!
There is just nothing like homemade pesto. It’s like a great Little Black Dress – it just goes with everything! 🙂 I hope you had a fabulous time on your trip!
Your photography and food is so beautiful! I love visiting your website. 🙂
can you make this without the oil? is there a substitute for it?
Hi JJ. I have never had pesto without oil 🙂
Love the idea of using spinach for a pesto sauce. So simple. Thanks for sharing this on Facebook tonight! The photos are gorgeous, the one of the ski lift almost took my breath away. 🙂
The pesto was great! Nice cheap alternative to traditional basil and pine nut. My batch needed the juice from half a lemon- and it served 2. Thanks!
Awesome Lisa!! Thanks for reporting back your success 🙂
This recipe for Spinach Pesto is awesome. I had some fresh basil growing in a container and I used half spinach and half basil…….I can’t put into words how delish this is. Thank you for the recipe.