Pesto Pasta With Mushrooms And Cherry Tomatoes

When I saw that Indiblogger has announced a contest in association with Del Monte about cooking an original Italian Pasta, the home chef in me could not wait any more. Immediately I applied to participate in this contest and I also received a complementary Del Monte Pasta packet from Del Monte India. I loved the packaging which had all instructions needed to cook pasta with a small recipe too. The time needed for cooking pasta is also mentioned on the packet along with the serving sizes. But the most important thing that I liked is that the packet is resealable. So once you take out some pasta from the packet, you can reseal the packet just by closing the seal as shown above.

Today’s recipe is a very healthy pasta recipe as it is made with pesto made from cilantro/coriander leaves. Addition of almonds makes this pesto a healthy one and complements the taste of coriander leaves. You can even add walnuts instead of almonds. I have also added chilly flakes as my hubby loves it that way. You can avoid adding red chilly flakes if you don’t like spicy food.

I made this pesto pasta ready for dinner and my hubby loved it. As you already know, I am a very good multi-tasker. I even recorded a video of the making of pesto pasta with one hand while cooking with the other hand and I wished I had another hand because I was clicking the step-by-step images too. Still I managed well and that’s what I am good at…  Cook, click, click, click, eat 🙂 

I really love pasta. I can eat pasta for 365 days of the year. I wish I get to visit Italy atleast once in my life-time. I am sure if I go there… I will try all the different types of pastas and Italian cuisine and click a lot of pictures to share with you all. I hope you all love the pasta recipe which I am sharing today. One of my office friend already saw the video even before I published it here and made the recipe. The video is attached at the end of the blog post.

Ingredients:                                            Prep. Time: 30 Min’s, Serves:2

1 cup Delmonte penne pasta
8 chopped garlic cloves
5 button mushrooms
6 sliced cherry tomatoes
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp black pepper powder
1 tsp red chilly flakes(optional)
2 tsp Italian seasoning
Salt to taste

For the pesto:
1.5 cups chopped cilantro leaves
10 blanched almonds(check notes)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 medium sized chopped capsicum

Equipment Needed:
1 large kadai/deep bottomed pan to boil the pasta
1 flat pan to cook the pasta
1 blender to make the pesto

Procedure:
Boil 4 cups water. When the water starts boiling add pasta and boil it al-dente.
Drain the pasta and retain 1 cup of water in which pasta was boiled.

While the pasta boils, keep the ingredients for pesto ready.

In a blender, blend together peeled blanched almonds, chopped cilantro, chopped onion and chopped capsicum.

Do not add water while blending this pesto. Once done, keep it aside.
Meanwhile keep the other ingredients ready.

In a pan, add olive oil. When the oil heats, add garlic and toss.

When the raw smell of garlic goes away, add chopped mushrooms and fry them for 2 Min’s. Enjoy the  garlic and mushroom smell in the meantime.

Now add the sliced cherry tomatoes and fry for 1 Min.

Then add the pesto sauce and give everything a nice stir.

Add black pepper powder and mix well.

Mix the drained pasta. Add salt to taste.

Garnish with Italian seasoning.
I added red chili flakes to make it spicier, but it is optional.

Serve it and enjoy it hot 🙂

Note:
Always cook pasta al-dente meaning, do not overcook pasta.
Never add oil to water while boiling pasta as the sauce will not get coated properly to the pasta.
Do not discard the water after cooking the pasta. This can be used if the sauce becomes thick.
Addition of red chilly flakes is optional.
Cherry tomatoes can be added full without slicing them. This will make the pasta look even more better.
You can add cheese for garnishing the pasta, I skipped this.
To make blanched almonds, simply add the almonds to 1/2 cup water in a mug and microwave for 1 Min. After cooling, the peel easily comes off. If you don’t have a microwave, boil water and add almonds to it and soak for 30 Min’s.