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    Home » Pasta » Homemade Pesto with Spaghetti

    Homemade Pesto with Spaghetti

    Homemade pesto with spaghetti and lardons on a white plate this …

    In day to day life it's the small things that make me happy. You know the kind of things that I mean -

    • Arriving for school pick-up (a couple of minutes late ... whoops) and securing THE parking space, right next to the gate. Virtual high five ensues between me and the 'on-gate-duty' caretaker. He understood that particular small thing.
    • Waking up in the middle of the night and finding that there's still plenty of hours to go before the alarm.
    • Going out to buy a particular (rather specialist) book for a friend's birthday ... finding it  ... and then discovering that it's in the sale. More virtual high fives.
    • Making a perfect cup of coffee, just when the need for a perfect cup of coffee is at its peak.
    • Opening the door of an empty dishwasher.
    • Finding myself in a packed supermarket car park;  spotting a free space; finding that someone had got there just before me and then discovering, to my delight that he (and yes, it was a 'he') was such a hopeless parker that he needed to give up and surrender the space to me. More VHFs and a big smug factor to boot.

    Yes, it's the small things for sure, so putting together a spontaneous, simple mid-week dinner that turns out to be spectacularly delicious ... well, it's a small thing but it makes me SO happy that I want to share it with you.

    The dinner in question was Homemade Pesto with Spaghetti - a fresh, homemade pesto tossed through hot strands of spaghetti and finished with some golden, crunchy, 'straight from the frying pan' lardons. Happiness on a plate.

    I've talked about making pesto before in the context of food for sharing. On this recent occasion, I had a bumper crop of basil from the garden and tweaked my previous recipe with a good glug of lemon juice to cut through some of the richness from the Parmesan and the pine nuts. So simple but so good.

    Basil in a colander

    And the choice of pasta seemed critical to the dish's success too. I don't buy spaghetti (or 'long spaghetti' as I used to call it as a child) very often - too much opportunity for a shirt full of dinner, if I'm honest - but somehow it does seem to make any sauce taste infinitely better and certainly more special. This time I had bought a type of spaghetti called Bavette, a narrower version of tagliatelle, it's similar to a flattened spaghetti. Bizarrely, when I googled it so that I could tell you all, I discovered that it is most frequently paired with traditional pesto sauces ... well fancy that. I could pretend that I had known that all along, but actually, I just liked the look of the shape. That's how shallow I am.

    So here's why I'm certain that this simple dinner of homemade pesto will make you insanely happy -

    • Making pesto is ridiculously easy. Basil + Parmesan + Lemon + Pine nuts + Garlic + Olive Oil ... Blitz in a blender / food processor and you're done.
    • This recipe makes enough for 2 lots of pasta for 6 people - and it will keep nicely in an airtight jar in the fridge for a week or so, or alternatively freezes beautifully. Ice cube trays work well if you'd rather freeze it in small portions.
    • Get the pesto made ahead of time (it's a perfect job for your bright-eyed morning self) and you have an instant dinner all ready to go.
    • Although there is a time and a place for the jarred variety (think our family's number 1 favourite go-to dinner Pesto Pasta), the fresh stuff wins hands down in looks, flavour and texture.
    • Adding anything on the bacon spectrum to most things is a winner and this is no exception. I always keep a couple of packets of lardons in the freezer and then fry them up from frozen when I need them. You won't even need to add any oil to the pan, the lardons provide their own.
    • Serve this dinner in some large, flat bowls with the pasta swirled in a mini-mountain in the middle and this looks fancy enough for a simple entertaining dish too. I'm picturing it with a fresh, crisp salad and a glass of something chilled ...

    So, enough of this happy talk... Add this to your list of 'must-try recipes' and look forward to a simple dish of happiness.

    Homemade pesto with spaghetti and lardons on a white plate
    Print

    Homemade Pesto with Spaghetti

    Print Recipe

    ★★★★★

    5 from 1 reviews

    Fresh, homemade pesto tossed through spaghetti and finished with 'straight from the frying pan' lardons. Happiness on a plate.

    • Author: Rachel Page
    • Prep Time: 20 mins
    • Cook Time: 10 mins
    • Total Time: 30 mins
    • Yield: 12 1x
    • Category: Dinner
    • Method: Blender +hob
    • Cuisine: Italian

    Ingredients

    Scale

    For the pesto -

    • 2 large bunches of basil, (my bunch was 110g (4oz)) - just use the leaves
    • 110g (4oz) pine nuts
    • 2 garlic cloves
    • 110g (4oz) Parmesan, finely grated
    • 1 lemon, juiced
    • 150ml (5floz) olive oil
    • salt and pepper

    For the pasta -

    • 500g (1lb) spaghetti, I used Bavette
    • 150g (5oz) lardons

    Instructions

    1. Add all the pesto ingredients to a blender or food processor and blitz until it is the right consistency - you still want to see a little texture in it. Taste and adjust the seasoning, also adding more lemon if it needs it.
    2. Boil a large pan of salted water for the pasta. Cook the spaghetti according to the packet instructions. It will be altogether lovelier if the spaghetti still retains a little bite i.e. 'al dente'.
    3. While the spaghetti is cooking, tip the lardons into a small saucepan and fry until they are crispy, golden and smelling delicious.
    4. Drain the cooked spaghetti, reserving a couple of cups of the starchy pasta water. Stir some pesto through the cooked spaghetti, adjusting the quantity depending on how you like it and add a couple of splashes of the reserved pasta water to help the pesto to coat the pasta.
    5. Now use a large fork, around which to twirl a portion of spaghetti and place it on a plate. Sprinkle with the cooked lardons and enjoy immediately.

    Keywords: homemade, family, comfort

    Did you make this recipe?

    Share a photo and tag us on Instagram (@marmaladeandme) — we can't wait to see what you've made!

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Pauline Lawson

      March 04, 2015 at 12:49 pm

      Can't wait to try this one, Rachel !

      • Rachel

        March 04, 2015 at 12:56 pm

        You're going to love it! Do comment to share how it went ... x

        • Pauline Lawson

          March 11, 2015 at 1:26 am

          Had this for all the family on Saturday night with a cheeky red wine, the verdict-
          A resounding winner, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
          You were right about the fresh pesto taking soooo much better than bought!
          Thank you Rachel, will be doing this one again. X

          • Rachel

            March 13, 2015 at 1:51 pm

            Fab. SO pleased that you all enjoyed it Pauline x

        • Pauline Lawson

          September 10, 2017 at 8:37 pm

          A family favourite! Non nom !

          • Pauline Lawson

            September 10, 2017 at 8:38 pm

            I mean nom nom !!!

            • Rachel

              September 24, 2017 at 9:56 am

              Think I prefer 'non nom'! Glad to hear you are enjoying this. I've been making a Kale pesto lately that is also great - I'll post it soon. Love to you all x

    2. DCJ

      March 04, 2015 at 7:57 pm

      Oh, no - pesto!!! All that pestle and mortar work 🙁

      What? Stick it in a blender? Derrr - never thought of that - dimbo.

      Thanks Rachel, it's back on the menu.

      ★★★★★

      • Rachel

        March 04, 2015 at 8:09 pm

        That really made me laugh! Enjoy your super easy pesto ...

    3. Sam Middleton

      March 06, 2015 at 7:44 pm

      Absolutely delicious! I didn't realise how easy it was to make home-made pesto! Thanks Rachel!

      • Rachel

        March 07, 2015 at 7:40 pm

        Fantastic! So pleased you loved it.

    4. Alison

      March 14, 2015 at 8:43 pm

      This is great and so easy to make. We made it for dinner tonight and it was a big hit even with my quite fussy 9 year old son. I did tell him it was called "alien green pasta" though. Sorry to rename your yummy dish Rachel

      • Rachel

        March 14, 2015 at 8:48 pm

        Sounds like a very worthy re-name to me. What ever it takes!

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