Penne and Asparagus Pesto. Pour the pasta into two serving bowls, add the potatoes evenly and cover evenly with asparagus pesto. Toss well and dust with a light grating of Parmesan before serving. Rinse asparagus spears and snap off and discard their tough ends.

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. You can cook Penne and Asparagus Pesto using 13 ingredients and 9 steps. Here is how you achieve it.

Ingredients of Penne and Asparagus Pesto

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

Add the asparagus and season with salt and pepper. Any longer and it will lose its bright green color as it will continue to cook once removed from. 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. 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..

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. Add the penne to the ricotta mixture. Fold in the asparagus and half of the Parmesan cheese. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and several dashes of nutmeg.