Zucchini Walnut Pesto Pasta

Zucchini Walnut Pesto Pasta is a great way to use up garden zucchini! This delicious pasta can be served as a side dish or a meatless main course!

Zucchini Pesto Pasta is the perfect side dish, vegetables and pasta all in one!

An Easy, Homemade Zucchini Pesto

Because most of the time we put all our effort into the main course. Then sometimes dessert steals the show, and more rarely it’s the side dish. Side dishes aren’t to be forgotten about, it pulls the whole dinner together and makes it feel like a meal.

We love making killer side dishes that take over any main course you put down like this Mexican Street Corn Pudding or this Broccoli with Buttery Bread Crumbs.

So it’s nice once in a while when you can put your effort into a side dish like this Zucchini Walnut Pest Pasta and keep the main dish easy – even when it doesn’t look like an easy dish that you pulled off. You can serve this pasta as a side to any chicken or turkey dish, or even as a meatless main course!

How To Make Zucchini Walnut Pesto Pasta

You can really use any kind of noodle you have on hand for this pasta, spaghetti works great or any type of tube pasta. Don’t run out and buy what I used, it’s going to be good on anything.

For the pesto, everything gets thrown into the food processor. Blend it up until smooth and then drizzle in the olive oil.

Zucchini Walnut Pesto Pasta is the perfect side dish, the pesto comes together in minutes!

Pesto is done, super easy! Now you can boil up your pasta shape of choice and dinner is done, or you can move on to the main course! Don’t forget, when the pasta is done just make sure you save a cup of the water before you drain it in case you need to thin out the pesto.

This is a great way to get your kids (or other members of your family…) to eat their vegetables in disguise.

There’s 2 cups of chopped zucchini in this pasta but you’d never know it. You can also use spinach or arugula, artichoke or even kale. Kale seems to be the super food everyone’s talking about lately.

What Main Courses Can I Serve This Zucchini Pasta With?

This post was originally a sponsored post that we did for a frozen chicken breast. The information is at the bottom of the recipe card, it was actually pretty delicious and if you’re looking for a quick dinner I’d definitely say to check them out.

If you do feel like cooking, we have some great main course ideas!

Zucchini Pesto Pasta will go with almost any dinner, or as a vegetarian main dish!

But like we said, this Zucchini Walnut Pesto Pasta is good enough all on it’s own for the main course! Try serving it with our Homemade Garlic Bread on the side or a homemade Creamy Caesar Salad!

Looking For More Vegetarian Pasta Recipes?

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Zucchini Pesto Pasta will go with almost any dinner, or as a vegetarian main dish!

Zucchini Walnut Pesto Pasta

  • Author: Dan
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x

A delicious pesto pasta side dish that can be served as a side dish or even the main meal!

Scale

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. dried pasta (any variety of tube shaped pasta or even spaghetti will work)
  • 2 cups diced zucchini
  • 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
  • 1 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
  • 1/4 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
  • 1 cup walnuts toasted
  • 1/2 cup olive oil

Instructions

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta according to the package directions.
  2. While the pasta is cooking, add all the ingredients except the olive oil to a food processor.
  3. Blend until smooth and then slowly drizzle in the oil until combined.
  4. Reserve a cup of the pasta water before draining and set aside.
  5. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot.
  6. Add the pesto and stir, pouring in a little pasta water at a time to thin the pesto out. You might not need it all so do this in stages.
  7. Add more parmesan cheese to the top before serving if desired.
  • Category: pasta
  • Method: stove top
  • Cuisine: American

This Zucchini Pesto Pasta with Barber Foods Stuffed Chicken post has been brought to you by Barber Foods, all opinions in this post are mine alone. #BarberNight

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