PESTO AND PASTA SALAD

Recipe Notes:

• You could substitute the cashew nuts with pine nuts, walnut, almond or pecans.

• You could substitute the pecorino cheese with other types of hard (firm) cheese like parmesan, romano, parmigiano or gruyere.

• You could substitute the bow ties pasta (also known as farfalle) with other types of pasta (with different shapes) such as fusilli, penne, rigatoni or conchiglie (shell).

• You could omit chicken and bacon in this recipe if you prefer a vegetarian meal.

• If you don’t have the same type of food processor that I have (which allows you to add olive oil while the food processor is running), you could stir the olive oil, grated cheese and salt with the processed cashew nuts, basil leaves and parsley leaves manually.

INGREDIENTS FOR PESTO PASTA SALAD

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(Serves 3-4 peoples)

✅️ ±1 Cup Basil Leaves

✅️ ±1 Cup Parsley Leaves

✅️ ±1 Cup Grated Pecorino Cheese

✅️ ¾ Cup Cashew Nut

✅️ ¾ Cup Olive oil

✅️  3 Cloves Garlic

✅️ ½ Tsp Salt

✅️ 200 Gm Baby Spinach

✅️ 1 Whole Red Capsicum

✅️ 1 Whole Yellow Capsicum

✅️ 200 Gm Mini Roma Tomatoes

✅️ 1 Whole Cucumber (Optional)

✅️ 1 Whole Roast Chicken Breast (±600 gm)

✅️ ±50 Gm Sun-Dried Tomatoes

✅️ 175 Gm Short Cut Bacon

✅️ 1 Cup Bow Tie Pasta

METHOD OF PREPARATION:

1. Use a food processor to process the cashew nuts, basil leaves and parsley leaves into a fine paste or into a preferred texture. Add the grated pecorino cheese to the paste and very briefly process the mixture further while pouring the olive oil into the running food processor. Once this is done, stop the food processor and add salt to the mixture. Briefly process the mixture again to mix well.

2. Cut all the vegetables into bite sizes and transfer to a bowl. Remove the fat on the bacon and slice them in halves. Further cut the halved bacon into strips (about 1.5cm each). Add the bacon into a pan and stir fry for 2 to 3 mins. Transfer the bacon to the bowl.

3. Boil about 3 cups of water in a small pot. Add pasta to the pot and cook for 10 mins or to a preferred texture. Stir the pasta briefly to avoid from sticking together. Remove the pasta with a strainer and transfer to the bowl. Add the pesto paste prepared earlier to the bowl.

4. Carefully toss and turn the salad mix to coat evenly. Transfer the pesto pasta salad into a serving dish and sprinkle with the grated pecorino cheese for that extra flavor. Serve the pesto pasta salad as an easy, light and complete meal.

RECIPE PHOTO GALLERY