Description
This easy pasta dish is the perfect way to showcase spring greens with a homemade fresh spinach pesto.
Ingredients
Scale
- 140g (5 oz) Wholemeal Pasta Shapes
- Sea Salt
- 4 Baby Leeks
- 12 Spears Early Asparagus
- 2 Handfuls Sugar Snap Peas
- 2 Large Handfuls Tender Baby Spinach
- Small Handful Fresh Mint
- Zest of 1/2 Lemon
- 3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 tbsp Freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra to serve
Instructions
- Set the pasta to boil, as per the packets instructions (I usually find it takes about 15-20 minutes) in a pan of salted water, until just tender.
- Meanwhile, prepare and blanch the veg. Top, tail and rinse the leeks, and cut them into generous centimetre rounds. Tail the asparagus spears and do likewise, and half or third the snap peas, depending on their size. You want everything to be about the same size.
- Put them in a heatproof bowl, salt well and pour over boiling water. Drain as well as you can after 3-4 minutes. The veg should be tender, but still crunchy.
- To make the pesto, combine the spinach, mint, lemon zest, olive oil, parmesan and a pinch more salt in a blender (I used my NutriNinja) until smooth. You may need to stop it and stir everything with a spatula a couple of times to make sure you get all the bits!
- To assemble, drain the pasta well, and toss everything together so the pasta is well coated in the pesto. Serve with some extra parmesan grated on top and a nice cold glass of Appletiser.