Pasta with rocket pesto

As I wrote in the rocket pesto post, I’ve got a busy day today and needed something quick and light to eat. Piotr suggested pasta with pesto and tuna. I’m not wild about tinned tuna, especially with pesto. A tuna steak, oh yes. But not from a tin.

Still, since Piotr had pointed me in that direction, I decided to make a very simple dish. Literally 14 minutes from running the water into the pasta pot to putting the food on the plate. And it tastes decidedly better than it looks.

At a glance:

Prep time: 14 minutes

Serves: this version is for one

How many calories? Pasta is pasta. I’m sure it knows the word “kilocalorie”.

Ingredients for pasta with rocket pesto:

• Two small handfuls of pasta (I used penne rigate, the narrow tubes, about two small handfuls)
• Rocket pesto made from scratch (click for the recipe)
• Grana Padano (cut into small shavings)
• A pinch of ground black pepper
• A handful of fresh rocket
• 6 cherry tomatoes

The recipe (mixing it up):

I drop the penne into boiling salted water. While it cooks (I’ve got about 10 minutes), I make the rocket pesto (using this recipe). Once that’s ready, I drain the pasta and wipe its pot dry with a paper towel so the pot stays hot. While the pasta dries off, I cut the Grana Padano into narrow shavings and quarter the cherry tomatoes.

I tip the pasta back into the pot it cooked in. I add a generous spoonful of rocket pesto and mix well. In go the chopped cherry tomatoes, then I mix again. I put a handful of fresh rocket on the serving plate and spoon the pesto pasta over it. I top the pasta with the cheese shavings and a light dusting of ground black pepper. All done. Enjoy!