The other day while reading blogs, we found a great looking recipe on Baked Bree. She found this recipe from a Cooking Light Magazine. As she explains, Pistou is a French Pesto. Last monday our two cousins, Greg and Kristy, came over for dinner…and we decided to make this dish for them! We are huge pasta lovers and eat it at least one to two times a week. This particular pasta dish was extremely flavorful and is definitely not your typical pasta dish. and even better…although it tastes like a decant and rich dish (aka not very good for you)…it is healthy for you! We usually use grated parmesan for our recipes but this time we bought a block of parm and shaved it on top of the pasta. Shaved parm is a lot better with pasta (in our opinion anyway); it tastes better and makes the dish look nicer! Definitely going to stick with shaved from now on…
Ingredients
- 4 tsp EVOO
- 2 1/2 C zucchini (half moons)
- 1 C packed basil leaves
- 1/2 C shaved Parmesan cheese
- 2 T toasted pine nuts
- 4 chopped garlic cloves
- 2 cups chopped onion (any type of sweet onion with do)
- 1 3/4 tsp salt
- 8 oz. penne pasta
- 1/4 C heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Directions
- Heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the zucchini and cook until tender and golden, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate and cool.
- Put 1/4 cup of the cooked zucchini, basil, 1/4 cup cheese, pine nuts and garlic in the food processor.
- Add the rest of the olive oil to the pan and add the onions. Cook for 10 minutes until the onions are brown. Cook the pasta in 6 quart of salted water. Reserve 1/3 cup cooking liquid to add to the processed zucchini mixture. Add the cooking liquid to the food processor and pulse until smooth.
- Add the zucchini back to the pan with the pasta and the processed zucchini mixture. Add the heavy cream and salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes until everything is heated through, maybe 22 minutes. Taste for seasonings.
- Pour the pasta into a big bowl and garnish with some basil leaves, pine nuts, and cheese
- ENJOY!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I am actually not into pasta at all anymore really, but that is totally something I would eat
It looks nice and light and not something that is going to sit like a rock in your stomach like some other pasta dishes out there.
My mom is French. Why did she not tell me about pistou growing up?!! I need to have a talk with her
LOL. This dish looks amazing! I’m definitely going to try it out. Thanks for sharing!
I grew up in a French family, and I had no idea that pistou was the French version of pesto. But now I’m intrigued and definitely want to make this. The recipe sounds so perfect!
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