Learn how to make pesto pasta with this quick and easy recipe! Bright, bold, and flavorful, it's one of our favorite weeknight dinners.
This pesto pasta recipe is pretty much my ideal weeknight dinner. It’s SO easy to make—just blend up the vibrant pesto sauce and toss with your favorite pasta shape—but it’s still incredibly flavorful. It’s bursting with notes of fresh basil, nutty Parmesan, and brightness from lemon.
I’m sharing a quick guide to how to make pesto pasta below. Sure, this classic Italian dish is simple, but there are a few tips and tricks you should know in order to get it just right. Don’t toss your pasta cooking water, watch the heat, and season to taste for a perfect bowl of pesto pasta. Once you master it, you won’t be able to help making it on repeat. It’s too delicious not to!
How to Make Pesto Pasta
You can find the full recipe with measurements at the bottom of this post. For now, here’s a quick overview of how it goes:
- Start by making the pesto. Blend up a batch of my homemade basil pesto, or use store-bought pesto in a pinch. You’ll use 1 full recipe of the homemade pesto on the pasta, about 1 cup. If you use store-bought, you’ll likely need less. Start with 1/3 cup and add more as needed.
- Then, prepare the pasta. Cook it in a large pot of salted boiling water according to the package directions. I often use a long pasta shape like spaghetti, linguine, or bucatini in this recipe, but short pasta works too. Try rigatoni or penne pasta, or use gemelli or fusilli. Twisted trofie are actually the traditional choice in Italy!
- Reserve some pasta water. Before draining the pasta, reserve 1 cup of the starchy pasta cooking water.
- Combine the pesto and pasta off the heat. Toss them together in a large skillet. Add 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta water and toss until the pasta is coated in a lightly creamy pesto sauce, adding more pasta water as needed.
- Finally, check the seasoning. Add an extra squeeze of lemon juice or more salt and pepper to taste if needed. Garnish with freshly grated Parmesan and basil and serve!
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
Pesto Pasta Recipe Tips
Never made pesto pasta before? Here are a few tips to get you started:
- Reserve some pasta water. My #1 tip for this recipe! The salty, starchy pasta cooking water will loosen the pesto enough to make a light sauce over the pasta. Because of its salty, starchy quality, this water will make a more flavorful, thicker final pesto sauce than regular water would. Note that you’ll likely need less pasta water if you’re using store-bought pesto.
- Pesto doesn’t like heat. Instead of combining the pesto and pasta in the hot pasta pot, I recommend tossing them together in a room temperature skillet. That’s because basil is sensitive to heat. If you heat it too much, it can become black and shriveled, giving the pesto a drier quality. I typically don’t heat the pasta at all after adding the pesto, but if you’d like, you can warm it over very low heat, adding pasta water as needed to keep the pesto creamy.
- Taste and adjust. Pestos vary in brightness, saltiness, and intensity, so make sure you taste and adjust your final dish before serving. Depending on your pesto, you might need to add an extra squeeze of lemon, a pinch of salt, or a big grind of black pepper to make the flavors sing.
Pesto Pasta Recipe Variations
Like all simple recipes, this one’s fun to play with. Here are a few ideas to change it up:
- Use another nut. Make homemade pesto with walnuts, almonds, or pepitas instead of pine nuts.
- Add leafy greens. Finish the dish with a handful of spinach or arugula.
- Mix in extra veggies. Toss in fresh or roasted cherry tomatoes, roasted cauliflower, or roasted asparagus.
- Make it cheesy. Stir in some mini mozzarella balls before serving.
- Spice it up. Sprinkle the pasta with red pepper flakes.
- Use another type of pesto. Try using kale pesto or broccoli pesto for a cold weather variation. You can also use vegan pesto and skip the cheese to make this recipe vegan.
- Try another “noodle.” Use spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles instead of regular pasta.
What’s your favorite twist on this classic dish? Let me know in the comments!
More Easy Pasta Recipes
If you love this recipe, try one of these easy pasta dishes next:
Easy Pesto Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 recipe homemade basil pesto, prepared with ⅓ cup olive oil, see notes to use store-bought pesto*
- 12 ounces spaghetti pasta**
- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
- Fresh basil leaves, for garnish
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Prepare the pesto according to this recipe, using ⅓ cup olive oil.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Prepare the spaghetti according to the package instructions, cooking until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water, then drain.
- Transfer the pasta to a large skillet. Add the pesto and ½ cup*** of the starchy pasta water and toss to coat, adding more pasta water as needed to coat the pasta in a lightly creamy sauce. If desired, gently warm the pasta over low heat.
- Season to taste and serve topped with freshly grated Parmesan and lots of basil.
Notes
I love your pesto recipe and make it frequently, and this recipe is also perfect: ideal ratios. Thanks so much for sharing. BTW Gotham Greens is awesome, I agree 👍. All the best from a fellow Chicagoan xx
So good!