Summer Series: Rainbow Pasta Salad
For Mother’s Day last month, my husband built me a 4-tiered herb garden planter complete with every herb you could ever want. Over the past month, this little garden has flourished beyond all expectations, so I needed to do something with the enormous amount of basil suddenly in my possession.
Of course my mind went to pesto, but the Summer days have been so sweltering lately, I thought a hot pesto pasta dish would not be ideal. Instead, I settled on a nice cold pesto pasta salad with a rainbow of freshly chopped veggies! That certainly hit the spot and didn’t last very long, let me tell you.
And since June is Pride Month, a rainbow theme seemed appropriate! <3
Ingredients:
1/3 cup walnuts and/or pecans
1.5 cups fresh basil leaves
1 big clove garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1 package pasta, cooked to package instructions and set aside
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped (or 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 yellow or orange, for more color!)
1 English cucumber, chopped
3 scallions, finely sliced
Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions:
In a food processor, process nuts, basil leaves garlic, olive oil, and a little salt and pepper until a smooth pesto sauce forms. Add a little water if it gets too solid to process well. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine cooked/cooled pasta, pesto sauce from step 1, and the remainder of the ingredients! Easy, right?
Enjoy!
