Aromatic, tasty, nutritious
Recipe for connoisseurs: pasta with spicy walnut pesto and oven vegetables
Tart sweet walnuts, spicy parsley and nutty, mild garlic – pesto can be so multifaceted
© Lilechka75 / Getty Images
It doesn’t always have to be Pesto Rosso or Pesto alla Genovese. Walnuts, fresh herbs, parmesan and oil create a creamy variant that could hardly be more aromatic. Together with oven vegetables and pasta a real treat.
The question of what to eat today can occasionally pose major challenges for one or the other – after all, you ask yourself it almost every day. The simple but ingenious answer is pasta.
After all, you have noodles at home almost always, satisfying both big and small gourmets with culinary delights. Pasta is also wonderfully versatile. Different sauces, varied ingredients and exciting toppings provide a breath of fresh air in the kitchen. A truly delicious combination that couldn’t be better suited to the cold season is pasta with seasonal oven vegetables and homemade walnut pesto – aromatic, versatile and rich in nutrients.
The queen of nuts – real nerve power
Even if it ripens in our latitudes from the end of September to mid-October, the walnut is a truly Christmas classic. As soon as the festive season begins, the nut star is countless Advent wreaths, enriches table decorations and adorns artfully draped Christmas plates. But the walnut can do a lot more than just look pretty. It is full of valuable vitamins, minerals and trace elements. The unshelled appearance suggests which organ the nut is particularly valuable for – the brain.
With its ingredients, the mini-model of the organ can activate performance, promote creativity and our ability to concentrate and support brain functions. Vegetable protein, numerous unsaturated fatty acids such as omega-3 fatty acids and linoleic acid, vitamins A, C and E, a number of B vitamins and, last but not least, minerals such as calcium, zinc, iron and magnesium make them an unbeatable nutrient package. Reason enough to include them regularly in the menu. In the form of an aromatic walnut pesto, it also beguiles all the senses.
Consciously through the season
The main actor in the dish is clearly the pesto. However, it unfolds its full potential together with the fine roasted aromas and notes of the oven vegetables – a wonderful symbiosis of flavors. With the choice of vegetables you can let off steam creatively. It makes sense to use seasonal vegetables – this not only protects the environment and reduces the ecological footprint, but also provides you with the best possible nutrients, as long transport and storage times contribute to the decrease in the micronutrient values in fruit and vegetables. Local, seasonal products have the least loss here, and they also taste by far the best at harvest time.
The possibilities are great here: from types of cabbage, beetroot, carrots to turnips – the winter range of vegetables has a lot to offer. Pumpkin, root vegetables and mushrooms are particularly suitable for being cooked in the oven. Steaming hot and well mixed with pasta and pesto, a wholesome, nutritious and delicious dish is on the table. Good Appetite.
Recipe: pasta with oven vegetables and walnut pesto
Ingredients for two servings
Pesto
- 150 grams of walnuts, peeled
- 1 bunch of fresh parsley
- 100 milliliters walnut oil (alternative: olive oil)
- 75 grams parmesan (vegan alternative: 2 tablespoons yeast flakes)
- 1 pinch of sugar
- 2 cloves of garlic
- salt
- pepper
Oven baked vegetables
- 100 grams of pumpkin e.g. Hokkaido
- 200 grams of carrots
- 100 grams of celeriac
- 200 grams of mushrooms
- 150 grams of cherry tomatoes
- 20 milliliters of oil of your choice
- pepper
- salt
- 2 tablespoons of dried parsley
- 300 grams of pasta of your choice
- For serving: fresh parmesan and chopped walnuts
preparation
- First prepare the oven vegetables: Preheat the oven to 200 ° C top / bottom heat.
- Wash the pumpkin and carrots, pat dry and cut into small pieces.
- Peel the celeriac and cut into bite-sized pieces. Clean and halve the mushrooms. Wash and halve the tomatoes.
- Mix everything in a bowl with the oil, season with salt, pepper and dried parsley. Spread on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and cook for about 30 minutes. Turn it in between.
- For the pesto: Roast the walnuts in a pan without fat over medium heat until golden brown. Peel the garlic cloves. Wash the parsley and shake dry.
- Add the parmesan, the oil, the garlic cloves, a pinch of sugar and pepper and salt as you like and mix until you have a homogeneous mixture.
- Add the walnuts and mix again. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet, drain and collect some pasta water.
- Mix the pasta with the oven vegetables and the pesto. If necessary, add some cooking water.
- Divide between two plates. Garnish with fresh parmesan and chopped walnuts and serve immediately.
Sources: MDPI