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Pesto Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes & Sugar Snap Peas

Making pesto from scratch is actually super easy. Mix pesto pasta with crunchy sugar snap peas & roasted tomatoes that melt in your mouth. You'll be in ❤️❤️
Course Dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine Americanized Italian, Italian
Prep Time 13 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 28 minutes
Servings 6
Calories 588.45kcal

Equipment

  • Vitamix or blender

Ingredients

Pasta & Veggies

  • 2 cups cherry tomatoes halved
  • ½ Tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • 12 ounce pasta we used penne
  • 8 ounce sugar snap peas trimmed, if necessary

Pesto

  • ½ cup spinach, packed firmly
  • ½ cup fresh basil leaves, packed firmly
  • ½ cup fresh parsley, de-stemmed
  • ½ cup parmesan cheese, finely grated plus extra for plating
  • ¼ cup pine nuts
  • 1 clove garlic, quartered
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ⅓ - ½ cup olive oil

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 400. [And take a second to start heating water for pasta]. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, mix together tomatoes, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread tomatoes on parchment paper, cut side up. Roast for 10-15 minutes. Set aside.
  • Combine all pesto ingredients (except olive oil) into a Vitamix or blender. Turn machine on and off several times, scraping sides with spatula in between. Turn machine on low and slowly add in olive oil, stopping again to scrape sides as needed. 
  • Meanwhile, cook pasta according to instructions on package. Add snap peas to pot during last 3 minutes of cooking. Drain pasta and snap peas in a strainer and return to pot or large bowl.
  • Stir pesto sauce into pasta and snap peas. Mix in roasted tomatoes. Serve with parmesan cheese sprinkled atop, as desired.

Notes

🍅 Top with extra parmesan cheese for maximum deliciousness.
🍅 Ingredient swap options: do full spinach or half spinach / half basil; almonds or walnuts instead of pine nuts; nuts can be toasted or raw; replace some of the oil with water; add other greens, i.e. mint
🍅 To make the pesto vegan & dairy-free, replace the parmesan with 2T nutritional yeast
🍅 To make the dish gluten-free, use whichever gluten-free pasta you like. I recommend: Ancient Harvest quinoa pasta (just be careful not to overcook cause it can get mushy), Trader Joe's Organic Brown Rice & Quinoa Fusilli Pasta, Barilla's gluten-free pastas, and Ronzoni's gluten-free pastas.
🍅 Cut your tomatoes length-wise so they hold their juices in better while being roasted.
🍅 If you can splurge on any one ingredient, choose a great olive oil...extra virgin olive oil, either Italian or Spanish, stored in a dark glass bottle.
🍅 Garlic Bread is the best side! My kids' favorite is Pepperidge Farm's frozen garlic bread. I always try to have two loaves in the freezer at a time.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 588.45kcal | Carbohydrates: 48.99g | Protein: 13.23g | Fat: 38.46g | Saturated Fat: 6.21g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5.69g | Monounsaturated Fat: 24.63g | Cholesterol: 7.33mg | Sodium: 627.98mg | Potassium: 406.49mg | Fiber: 3.66g | Sugar: 4.6g | Vitamin A: 1489.55IU | Vitamin C: 41.92mg | Calcium: 142.11mg | Iron: 2.89mg