Pasta with Tarragon Pesto
After posting my recipe for Tarragon Pesto, I wanted to show you how to make one of the simplest dishes with it: Pasta with Tarragon Pesto! It is a perfect dish for the arrival of Spring.
Certainly we all know pasta with pesto, but tarragon gives a very original touch to this dish.
Cooking with tarragon
Tarragon is an herb that can be found in many traditional French sauces such as bearnaise sauce or tartare sauce. It was just after making one of these sauces and I still had fresh tarragon that I said to myself “how could I cook with tarragon any other way?”.
It is an herb that has a slightly peppery taste and a very particular aroma that goes particularly well with fish and lemon. This is also why I added lemon in my recipe for Tarragon Pesto .
In most recipes, you onle need the leaves. It is therefore important to remove the leaves from the stems. Then, the tarragon is usually chopped because its taste is so strong that it is best not to eat a whole leaf at once but rather small, finely chopped pieces.
The stems can then be used in sauces or sauces. Let them infuse whole then remove them before tasting them.
Tarragon Pesto Pasta Recipe
For 4 servings you need the following ingredients.
Ingredients
For the pasta
- 400 g of pasta
- 40 g pine nuts
- Parmesan cheese
- extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
For the tarragon pesto
- 1 bunch of tarragon
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1/2 lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons of toasted pine nuts
- 25 g parmesan
- 75 ml olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Preparation
Cook the pasta in boiling water as directed on the package. Reserve 10 cl of pasta water taken at the end of cooking.
Remove the leaves from the tarragon stems. Place them in a blender with the peeled garlic cloves, the juice of half a lemon, toasted pine nuts, Parmesan and olive oil. Season with a little salt and pepper. Mix until a homogeneous paste is obtained.
Toast the pine nuts in a pan without adding any oil or fat.
Drain the pasta, mix them with the pesto, adding more or less pesto according to your taste. Add the pasta water to allow the pesto to stick better to the pasta. Mix well.
Pour into the plates, add a few toasted pine nuts and grated Parmesan. Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a little salt and pepper.
Note
You can add some cherry tomatoes sautéed for 2 minutes in the pan with a little olive oil after having browned your pine nuts.
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Pasta with Tarragon Pesto
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Ingredients
For the pasta
- 400 g of pasta
- 40 g pine nuts
- Parmesan cheese
- extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
For the tarragon pesto
- 1 bunch of tarragon
- 2 garlic cloves peeled
- 1/2 lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons of toasted pine nuts
- 25 g parmesan
- 75 ml olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in boiling water as directed on the package. Reserve 10 cl of pasta water taken at the end of cooking.
- Remove the leaves from the tarragon stems. Place them in a blender with the peeled garlic cloves, the juice of half a lemon, toasted pine nuts, Parmesan and olive oil. Season with a little salt and pepper. Mix until a homogeneous paste is obtained.
- Toast the pine nuts in a pan without adding any oil or fat.
- Drain the pasta, mix them with the pesto, adding more or less pesto according to your taste. Add the pasta water to allow the pesto to stick better to the pasta. Mix well.
- Pour into the plates, add a few toasted pine nuts and grated Parmesan. Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a little salt and pepper.
