Spinach Pesto Linguine : Pasta Recipes
Spinach Pesto Linguine
Ingredients
A large handful of fresh spinach
Approximately 8-12 cloves of garlic (depending on your preference/size of meal)
4 tablespoons of olive oil
100-200g of feta cheese
200g of pitted kalamata olives
a small package of snap peas
1-2 breasts of chicken (Substitute salmon or steak if that is your preference)
approximately 500g of linguine
Preparation
Take a bit of time before preparation to lightly sautee the garlic in a pan, not completely cooked but take a little of the bite off of it. When you have done that, throw that in your food processor. Chop it up a bit, then throw in the spinach bit by bit (go ahead and leave the stem on if you like), depending on the size of your processor. When you have completed mixing the galic & spinach together, put the olive oil in, and mix that in as well. Put into a bowl and set aside.
Strip the snap peas of the stringy bits and the hard ends and place those aside in a bowl as well.
Start the water on the stove at a medium temperature to prevent the water from boiling, but able to easily obtain a boil at your whim. Start the barbeque/grill and put the chicken (or other meat) on at a medium temperature when it has heated up, and put a bit of olive oil on each side to prevent sticking. When the meat is about quarter done, you want to have the water boiling. Put the linguine in, and if you wish put a bit of olive oil in that as well for flavor and to prevent the pasta from sticking together.
While you are doing this, put the snap peas in a small fry pan with some olive oil at a low-medium temperature to warm them up a bit.
When the pasta and meat is cooked (try and get these finished cooking at the same time), take the chicken and put it on a cutting board and slice it into strips (In the case of the steak/salmon, it may be better to just leave it in fillet/steak form for presentation purposes). Strain the pasta, and put it in a fry pan along with some of the pesto (by portion) to heat the pesto up a bit. Make sure it is not at a high temperature as the pasta will crisp up. When you have finished this, put it on a place and crumble the feta over the pasta and throw some olives on as well. Arrange the snap peas and meat strips on top as well, and there’s your dinner!
Makes 3-5 portions.
Variations
You may alter the pesto at will, it works equally well to either add sundried tomatoes to the spinach pesto, or if you like you could also just do a traditional basil pesto. Other variations on pesto include adding romano or parmigiano reggiano (or other softer parmesan cheeses), or adding different kinds of nuts (pine nuts, almonds, etc) for a different taste to the pesto. In keeping with the tangy taste that the kalamata olives bring to the pasta, I find that adding sundried tomatoes really helps with enhancing the flavor of the dish.