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Let’s be honest here.
Pasta is a pretty beloved food by most, you can dress it up or you can dress it down.
Personally? I am a huge fan of dressing it down. Simple flavors are best and a little (ok a lot) of cheese is helpful too.
I am sure that, like a lot people, I pretty much grew up on noodles with butter and salt. Just noodles, butter and salt. It’s a meal that even now I find comfort in and is still totally delicious. However, I now prefer to add at least a little basil. In my years since my childhood I have become a basil freak. I am completely in love with the stuff.
My dad use to grow bush basil out the yazoo throughout the summer months and I loved heading outside to pick it for Friday Night Pasta. I love thinking back to memories like this, especially when summer is so close. I am beyond exited!
So basically, today I am going to tell you how to brown some butter, chop some basil and boil some pasta.
Pretty simple stuff, but a recipe I think everyone could use at one time or another.
The idea for leaving the pesto chunky came from this amazing book. If you are interested in cooking and crafting you should definitely look into this book. I personally love it.
Chunky pesto means no breaking out the food processor. And that makes me so happy. For some reason, I really hate using that appliance. Washing it – Ugh.
I added a little brown butter for an extra layer of flavor.
Plus, my mom says no pasta is complete without at least a little salt and butter.
Can’t really argue that.
Oh, and pasta on Thursday just feels right.
Especially when it is so quick and easy to prepare. Quick and easy makes things so much better.
20 Minute Brown Butter Chunky Basil Pesto Pasta.
Servings: 6 Servings
Calories Per Serving: 302 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
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Ingredients
- 2 cup fresh basil
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (or almonds pistachios, walnuts or cashews, but I personally like pine nuts best)
- 1 clove garlic
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 4-6 tablespoons olive oil
- freshly cracked black pepper
- crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
- In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan add the butter and melt over medium heat until just browned. Butter will melt, foam, and froth, and then begin to brown along the bottom. Whisk the browned bits off of the bottom of the pan and set aside.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
- Meanwhile, finely chop the basil and add it to a medium size bowl. Chop the pine nuts and finely mince or grate the garlic, add them to the bowl with the basil. Add the parmesan, olive oil and cooled brown butter (make sure to get all the brown bits out of the pan). Using a fork mix well and then sort of mash all the ingredients together with the fork. If desired add more olive oil until your desired consistency is reached.
- Boil the pasta according to package directions. Drain and immediately toss the hot pasta with the pesto. Serve hot or at room temp (I am all about hot pasta though!) with fresh cracked black pepper and a pinch of crushed red pepper.
Notes
*The Chunk Basil Pesto was inspired by this amazing book: [Sweet Paul Eat and Make | http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Paul-Eat-Make-Charming/dp/0544133331/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399505444&sr=1-1&keywords=sweet+paul]
Especially on a Thursday, when we are all dying for Friday.
This meal is easy to make and i will try to give a best breakfast for my family.
Thank you!
These look delicious. I want eat it and can’t wait for it
I cannot wait to try this one! I love pesto and never even thought about using it like this. This looks incredible! My granddaughters absolutely LOVE pasta with a little fake healthy margarine on it LOL. Sometimes I think that is all they eat! They constantly ask for noodles! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
This looks super wonderful and I can’t wait to try it, however your ingredient list is missing the pasta. How much did you use?
I used 1 pound of pasta. Sorry about that and I hope you love this!
Thanks! Made it tonight – it was a wonderful way to change up my old tried and true favorite meal of buttered noodles caked in parmesan cheese 🙂