Easy Pesto Pine Nut Pasta

A delicious, easy-to-make meal with freshly cooked pasta, pesto, toasted pine nuts and mozzarella. A quick and simple go-to pasta recipe for busy weeknights that can be served warm or cold.

This is one of our all time favourite pasta recipes. It’s so delicious, and once you've got the basic recipe, you can add in any extra ingredients you fancy.

It’s ready to eat in just 15 minutes, so it's perfect for those busy weeknights, when you just want dinner to be fast and faff free!

Why You’ll Just LOVE To Cook Our Pesto Pine Nut Pasta Recipe

• It’s super fast! Ready in just 15 minutes, so it's doable even on busy days.

• It's super easy with very little preparation needed.

• It's packed with protein and completely versatile, you can add in any extra ingredients you like to eat.

Equipment Needed

• Saucepan - for the pasta

• Colander

• Frying pan - for the pine nuts

• Mixing bowl

• Cooking spoon

Pesto Pine Nut Pasta Ingredients

You'll only need four ingredients to make the basic pine nut pasta recipe

• 150g pasta shapes - we used Chifferi Rigati from DeCecco because it cooks really quickly!

• 80g pine nuts

• 100g basil pesto - just from a jar is fine

• 160g mini mozzarella balls - if you can't find the mini balls just tear up a regular ball of mozzarella.

How To Make Pesto Pine Nut Pasta

You'll really like how quick and simple this easy pasta recipe is to prepare and cook

Step One - cook the pasta

• Cook the pasta shapes as per the packet instructions. Once cooked, drain using the colander.

• If eating the pasta cold, rinse the colander of pasta under cold running water to cool the pasta down fast.

Step Two - toast the pine nuts whilst the pasta cooks

• Put the dry frying pan over a medium heat on the hob. Don't add any oil.

• Tip in the pine nuts and let them toast gently over the heat, shake the pan often to stop them burning. Once the nuts start to colour and smell nutty, they're done.

Step Three - mix up the pesto pine nut pasta recipe

• Tip the cooked, drained pasta into a mixing bowl.

• Add in the pesto, toasted pine nuts and mini mozzarella balls.

• Give the pine nut and pesto pasta a good mix together with a spoon so that all the pasta is well coated with the basil pesto.

Love to eat Italian food? Try out more of our easy Italian recipes here

Tasty Extras To Add To Our Pine Nut And Pesto Pasta Recipe

There's loads of different things you could add to this easy pasta recipe to really make the dish in your own style. Any of the following are delicious!

• Grilled chicken or salmon

• Canned tuna, flaked into the pasta

• Cooked puy lentils - cheat here and grab a bag of the microwave ones.

• Vegetables - try halved cherry tomatoes, cucumber ribbons, steamed broccoli or grilled asparagus, garlicky fried mushrooms or even just throw some peas and green beans in with the pasta as it cooks.

Get all our delicious vegetarian recipes here

More Quick Pasta Recipes For Weeknight Dinner

If you've love a quick and easy plate of pasta, try these!

• Canned Tuna Pasta

• Creamy Mushroom Gnocchi

• Chickpea Pesto Pasta

Get loads more delicious easy pasta dishes here

Need Some Family Meal Ideas?

Check out our meal planning here – it’s filled with recipes, meal planning tips and pre-filled printable meal plans weekly or seasonally. We’ve got hundreds of the BEST family recipes and Home Cooked Meals your whole family will LOVE!

Get more delicious meal ideas and easy recipes here

More quick pasta recipes to try 

• Creamy Nduja Pasta 
• Philadelphia Pasta With Bacon