Description
Possibly one of my favorite spring greens is peppery arugula, and it shines so well in this lemony arugula pistachio pesto pasta.
Ingredients
Scale
- 30g arugula or baby arugula
- 15g basil leaves
- 100g (3/4 cup) raw pistachio nutmeats
- 40g (3 tbsp) extra virgin olive oil
- 20g (2 tbsp) water
- 20g (2 tbsp) lemon juice (approx. 1 lemon)
- 2 tsp lemon zest (approx. 1 lemon)
- 1 clove garlic
- 4 ice cubes (~48g)
- 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 230g rigatoni or mezze maniche pasta
- Evoo, black pepper, oregano buds, and grated parmesan for topping
Instructions
- Cook the pasta. Cook the pasta until al dente, reserve 1 cup of pasta water, and drain the pasta.
- In parallel, make the pesto. To a high-powered blender (I used my Vitamix), add the basil, arugula, pistachios, olive oil, water, lemon juice and zest, garlic, ice, and kosher salt. Blend on low, slowly ramping up the speed to medium-high. Blend until creamy and smooth, stopping the blender as needed to scrape down the sides or pop air bubbles – takes about 3 minutes to properly bend the pesto into a creamy paste. Pop the pesto into a bowl and cover the pesto with cling wrap or olive oil so it doesn’t oxidize.
- Bring the sauce and pasta together. Add all the pesto to a large skillet/pan along with 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta water. Heat over low heat, stirring until the pesto loosens and becomes a silky, glossy sauce. Dump the pasta in and toss to coat in the sauce. Add more pasta water as needed to loosen the sauce (keep the heat on low) I used 2/3 cup of pasta water total. Taste and adjust for salt.
- Serve. Serve the pasta with freshly cracked black pepper, a drizzle of olive oil, grated parmesan (optional), and oregano buds (also optional).