Spinach pesto pasta is a family-friendly way to eat your greens
If you’re the kind of parent who has successfully sneaked vegetables into the food you serve to your kids, I salute you. I am neither clever nor energetic enough to pull off this feat.
My son, though? Too clever for his own good. My halfhearted attempts at benign culinary subterfuge have not succeeded, and, frankly, I’m okay with that. I’d rather he be fully aware of the vegetables he’s eating that he can appreciate on their own, which is why most days you’ll find me setting a dish of roasted, raw or barely steamed vegetables on the table with dinner. Broccolini, broccoli, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans and asparagus are all safe bets – for now, anyway.
My earliest and most successful endeavor at integrating vegetables in a more palatable manner was kale pesto. I started making it when my son was a toddler. He ate it for a while, and then I got the feeling – or he told me – that something was not tasting right. The kale was coming on too strong, as it tends to do when featured raw in large amounts. As much as I love cruciferous vegetables, including kale, I had to admit it had a way of overpowering just about everything else in the dish, especially the basil.
What could I use instead? Baby spinach was the obvious answer. Nutritionally speaking, the two greens are not identical. Kale is higher in certain essential minerals and vitamins, including calcium and vitamin C, but considering the amount of dairy and citrus consumed in our house, I wasn’t concerned. Spinach is still packed with lots of good stuff, especially potassium and vitamin A. Crucially, it breaks down to almost nothing, volume-wise, when run through the food processor, meaning I could use a lot of it to pack as much as possible into my pesto. In fact, the formula I settled on uses almost twice as much spinach as basil.
Baby spinach has plenty of other advantages. It comes prewashed and ready to use, unlike the bunches of kale I typically buy that require stemming and a trip through the salad spinner. It ends up preserving the green color even better than basil alone, which is prone to darkening almost immediately. And most importantly, spinach’s mellow flavor doesn’t mask the basil at all. You’d be hardpressed to know there was even spinach in there – although, yes, I have told my son about it!
The rest of the pesto is fairly standard. Pecans are my nut of choice, walnuts my second pick, though you can choose whatever nut or seed you like. Olive oil enriches and pulls together the mix, while salt, pepper and lemon juice sharpen and brighten the flavors. I leave cheese out of the pesto itself, preferring to save it for an optional garnish. (Again, there are no cheese deficiencies in our house.) But feel free to blend grated parmesan into the pesto, if you prefer. I like to use a short, curly pasta shape, such as rotini, fusilli or cascatelli, so the pesto settles between all the ridges. And I’d encourage you to go with bronze-cut pasta, whose extra starchiness helps the pesto cling even better.
Even beyond the appealing helping of greens, this recipe has one other huge family-friendly advantage: It makes a lot, and it stores well. You’ll end up with about 2 cups of pesto, enough for 2 pounds of dried pasta. I’ve written the recipe so that you use half the pesto now and save the rest in the freezer for another time. Of course, you can break this up however you need. I often freeze smaller portions of pesto in squat deli containers to use on 8 ounces of pasta, which is enough to get my son through a few days of dinners or, more often, lunches for school. The finished dish – nicknamed “green pasta” among my family – lasts for several days refrigerator as well.
A recipe that’s fast (30 minutes!), easy, make-ahead, tasty and full of greens? I’d call that a parenting win.
Spinach Pesto Pasta
6 servings (makes about 8 cups)
Total time: 30 mins
This light, bright spinach pesto pasta is a great, kid-friendly way to work additional greens into your meal rotation. We like baby spinach for its mellow flavor, but feel free to play around with bolder, heartier options, such as kale or Swiss chard.
The recipe is a time-saving twofer. Use half the pesto now, and freeze the rest for a quick and easy meal later.
Storage: Refrigerate the pesto in an airtight container for up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 3 months. If frozen, defrost overnight in the refrigerator. Refrigerate the assembled pasta for up to 4 days.
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups (about 5 1/2 ounces) pecan halves and pieces
1/2 to 1 teaspoon fine salt, to taste, plus more as needed
1 pound curly or ridged dried pasta, such as fusilli, rotini or cascatelli
1 garlic clove
Packed 3 cups (2 1/2 ounces) fresh basil leaves (from 1 4-ounce package)
1 (5-ounce) bag or clamshell baby spinach, divided
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, plus more to taste Freshly ground black pepper Freshly grated or shaved parmesan , for serving (optional)
STEPS
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Arrange the pecans in a single layer on a small sheet pan and toast in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring halfway through, or until fragrant and slightly darkened. (Alternatively, toast the nuts, stirring frequently, in a dry skillet over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes.) Transfer to a plate or bowl to cool slightly.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then salt the water to taste. Add the pasta and cook according to the package instructions until al dente. Reserve about 1 cup of the pasta water, then drain. Return the pasta to the pot.
While the pasta cooks, combine the pecans and garlic in a food processor and pulse until the nuts are finely chopped. Add the basil, half of the spinach and half of the oil (it’s okay to eyeball these), the lemon juice, a generous grind of black pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon salt, to taste. Process until pureed, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add the remaining spinach, turn the food processor back on and gradually stream in the remaining oil until smooth and thoroughly combined, scraping down the bowl as needed. Taste, and season with more salt, lemon juice and/or pepper, as desired. You should have about 2 cups of pesto.
Transfer 1 cup of the pesto to the pot with pasta and gently toss to evenly coat, splashing in the reserved pasta water 1 tablespoon at a time, as needed, to loosen the sauce.
Transfer to a large serving bowl or individual plates, season with more salt, and/or garnish with the parmesan, if using, and serve.