Pea Pasta

Pea pasta is a simple summer spaghetti tossed in pea pesto and served with freshly grated parmesan and basil leaves.

🥗 Peas

I do love peas - they are such an easy veg to cook with. The fact that they store so easily and cook up so quickly, means that its rare to ever be with out some green veggies for the side of our plates.

But every now and again I do like to make the little pea the star of the show like in this gorgeous pea pesto pasta. Pea soup is another great way to show off the humble pea. Its usually best when paired with a salty ingredient like in pea and ham soup or pea and samphire soup - so full of goodness and flavour 🙂

🍜 Pasta with a pea puree pesto

We usually have a glut of peas up at the allotment in the summer and pea soup isn't necessarily the best option when the weather is warm (although pea soup is also great served cold!). However, another great recipe option for the wonderful petit pois, instead of soup, is pea pasta made with a creamy pea pesto.

To make the pea pesto I simply pureed peas with garlic, fresh basil and some grated parmesan. This is a perfect sauce for stirring through some al dente spaghetti to create this a lovely vibrant dish of green pea pasta. The perfect dish for those long summer evenings. For a pasta dish thats a little more traditional but still has that summer vibe, try my salmon and prawn linguine.

🥘 What you will need to make this recipe

To make pea pesto pasta for 4 people you will need the following ingredients

For the pasta:

• 350 g dried spaghetti
• 200 ml Boiling water
• 1 tsp salt for the water

For the pea pesto:

• ½ tbsp olive oil
• 150 g Onion roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 400 ml of boiling water
• 400 g of frozen peas or 500g fresh podded peas (300g with pods removed)
• Handful fresh basil leaves
• 15 g grated Parmesan (or vegetarian cheese for a veggie option)
• Pinch of Sea salt and black pepper
• Extra basil leaves, parmesan and olive oil to serve (optional)

🔪 Instructions

1. Cook the spaghetti or preferred type of pasta in salted water and according to the packet instructions.
2. Whilst the spaghetti is cooking place a large pan on a medium heat. Add the oil, chopped onions and garlic then fry until soft. Next pour in the boiling water and add the peas. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the basil.
3. Blend the onion and pea mixture whilst still in the pan using a hand blender or transfer to a blender machine. Blend until smooth. Next add the grated parmesan, salt and pepper and mix in well.
4. Drain the cooked pasta and transfer to the pea pesto. Toss together well then serve with extra parmesan, basil leaves and a drizzle of oil.

📖 Pesto recipes

Making pesto at home is super easy and you can even experiment with the ingredients to come up with your own favourite pesto recipe and then mix with pasta for a super quick evening meal. In general a standard basil pesto usual contains a cheese (usually parmesan), a nut (usually pine nuts), and a veg or fresh herb (usually basil).

In this pea pasta recipe I have replaced the basil with peas and left out the nuts. Another idea is to use celery like in this celery, apple and walnut pesto. Of course, there is also plenty of jarred pesto options available in the supermarkets, which is really handy for midweek dinners. I usually have a jar in the cupboard ready for making chicken and broccoli with pesto quinoa or for a simple chicken pesto pasta.

⏲️ Cooking time

Meals that take an age to prepare and cook are just not practical during the week. From pod to plate this pea pasta recipe takes just 30 minutes to make. To make it even more efficient the pea pesto can be prepared in advance (refrigerate or freeze!).

💭 Recipe tip

Save some of your pasta cooking water. Then, if you find that your pea pesto is too thick to evenly toss through the cooked pasta, add a couple of ladles of the pasta water to help loosen and combine. The starch in the water, left over from the pasta, will also ensure that the pesto doesn't become too watery.

Let me know what you think of this pea pesto pasta recipe by leaving and comment and rating below! You can also save pea pesto pasta on Pinterest: pea pesto pasta.

📖 Recipe

📋 Pea Pasta

By: Debbie Jones

Simple summer spaghetti tossed in pea puree pesto and served with freshly grated parmesan and basil leaves

4.74 from 15 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine British, Italian

Servings 4 people

Calories 412 kcal

Ingredients

 

1x2x3x

For the spaghetti:

• ▢ 350 g dried spaghetti
• ▢ 200 ml Boiling water
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt for the water

For the pea purée:

• ▢ ½ tablespoon olive oil
• ▢ 150 g Onion roughly chopped
• ▢ 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• ▢ 400 ml of boiling water
• ▢ 400 g of frozen peas or 500g fresh podded peas (300g with pods removed)
• ▢ Handful fresh basil leaves
• ▢ 15 g grated Parmesan (or vegetarian cheese for a veggie option)
• ▢ Pinch of Sea salt and black pepper

To serve:

• ▢ Extra fresh basil leaves, Parmesan and olive oil

Instructions

 

• Start by cooking the spaghetti in salted water and according to the packet instructions.
• Whilst the spaghetti is cooking place a large pan on a medium heat. Add the oil, chopped onions and garlic then fry until soft. Next pour in the boiling water and add the peas. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the basil.
• Blend the onion and pea mixture whilst still in the pan using a hand blender or transfer to a blender machine. Blend until smooth. Next add the grated parmesan, salt and pepper and mix in well.
• Drain the cooked spaghetti and transfer to the pea puree. Toss together well then serve with extra parmesan, basil leaves and a drizzle of oil.

Nutrition

Serving: 333g | Calories: 412kcal | Carbohydrates: 80.1g | Protein: 17g | Fat: 4.8g | Saturated Fat: 1.3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1.6g | Sodium: 80mg | Potassium: 441.8mg | Fiber: 6.1g | Sugar: 9.9g | Vitamin A: 19.6IU | Vitamin C: 23.5mg | Calcium: 108.8mg | Iron: 3.4mg

Notes

Recipe tip: 

Save some of your pasta cooking water. Then, if you find that your pesto is too thick to evenly toss through the cooked pasta, add a couple of ladles of the pasta water to help loosen and combine. The starch in the water, left over from the pasta, will also ensure that the pesto doesn't become too watery.

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