Penne and Asparagus Pesto. A bright and lemony pesto sauce with penne and asparagus. By adding some lemon to the pesto you create a herby, lemony, bright sauce that pairs really well with asparagus and pasta. I like mini penne with pesto because of the little lines or ridges in them, which is great for catching the sauce.

The pistachio asparagus penne was a breeze to make and it tasted great! The pistachios worked really well in the asparagus pesto and I am looking forward to experimenting with using them in more pestos. Pour the pasta into two serving bowls, add the potatoes evenly and cover evenly with asparagus pesto. You can cook Penne and Asparagus Pesto using 13 ingredients and 9 steps. Here is how you cook that.

Ingredients of Penne and Asparagus Pesto

Prepare 1 packages of Penne pasta or spaghetti.
It's 1 packages of Grape or cherry tomatoes.
You need 1 of olive oil.
It's of Pesto.
You need 5 oz of cheese (queso fresco).
You need 10 of garlic flavored cracker.
You need 1 bunch of Asparagus.
You need 1 tbsp of olive oil.
Prepare 2 tbsp of cream cheese.
Prepare 2 tsp of dried thyme.
Prepare 2 tsp of rosemary.
You need 1 of salt.
Prepare 1 of pepper.

Toss well and dust with a light grating of Parmesan before serving. Replace half the basil used in this recipe with mint leaves, if you like; this is a summery affair, intended to coincide with the latter part of asparagus season when the spears are plentiful & cheap. Pesto was first created in Italy as a thick sauce made from basil, but now other herbs and vegetables are often substituted. Making asparagus pesto lets you use the peel, which contains a ton of flavor even though it's sometimes too tough and stringy to eat Puréeing lets you sidestep this issue: you keep the peel, and the flavor, but your food processor pulverizes the fibers, even if you use thick spears.

Penne and Asparagus Pesto instructions

Bring pot of water to boil and add penne pasta. Cook to Al dente, drain and set aside..
While noodles are cooking, set oven to bake at 425. Cut bottom ends off of asparagus. Put rinsed asparagus and tomatoes on baking sheet and drizzle olive oil all over to coat..
Roast asparagus and tomatoes for 10 minutes depending on thickness of asparagus. As long as the tips are cooked...the rest of the stalk will be used in pesto. Remove from oven and set tomatoes aside..
Chop top tips of asparagus about 1" and set aside..
Crumble cheese and crackers into blender. Chop up remaining asparagus and drop into blender..
Add olive oil, cream cheese, thyme, rosemary, salt & pepper. Mix till a thick paste. May need to stir and foil it in..
In large bowl, add penne and half the pesto. Mix. Continue adding more pesto. I still had 1/4 cup left to use for another dish..
Serve portion of pasta on plate. Garnish with asparagus tips and tomatoes..
Substitute: I didn't have any pine nuts or sliced almonds. So I used crackers instead. It helps in making it a good thick paste..

Toss together and serve hot or. There was winter, but it wasn't 'really' winter by any standards. Literally just finished cooking! this is awesome! I did not use the kalamata olives but i did grill the pepper asparagus and zucchini! yum yum yum I also skipped the lemon partially because i forgot and this was the first time i made pesto. Penne with Shimeji Musroom and Asparagus in Pesto sauce in a sauce pan.