Arugula can be used beyond salads. Toss your favorite pasta in homemade arugula pesto for a quick and easy meal!
Arugula Pesto
Do you have a habit of buying bagged salad mixes and forgetting about them? Same here. There was a giant unopened bag of arugula staring at me all week. Time was ticking and I had to find a way to use up all the arugula.
Let’s pulverize arugula into an unexpected, yet utterly delicious pesto! This starts off like the traditional basil pesto. You need: pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, and parmesan cheese.Instead of basil, swap in fresh arugula leaves!
Arugula pesto is a vibrant peppery variation of the traditional basil pesto. It is a versatile sauce that is excellent for pastas, sandwiches, or grilled vegetables or meats.
This recipe works with any variety of arugula. Keep in mind that each variety has distinct flavors. Wild arugula and wild rocket arugula are known for its strong, pepper flavor. Common arugula, the version most commonly found in grocery stores, has a mild, slightly nuttier flavor compared to wild arugula.
Recommended Pasta Shapes
This dish works best fusilli pasta. The little twists and crevices of fusilli catches and holds on to the delicious arugula pesto sauce. Another reason, I prefer to use fusilli for mac and cheese instead of the usual smooth elbow pasta.
Other pasta similar to fusilli include gemelli (looks like twisted strands), cavatappi (also known as corkscrew pasta), and farfalle (often called bow-tie pasta). These shapes are great at holding onto sauce.
Many Ways to Use Pesto
While the assertive and acidic pesto would have worked wonderfully with grilled shrimp or fresh burrata and tomatoes, I went the simple route with pasta. This arugula pesto is quite versatile. Here are some ideas:
- Blend the pesto with mayo to make a sandwich spread
- Use it as a base for pizza
- Use it as a filling for bread rolls
- It makes a delicious sauce for steak and pork chops
Now that I’ve found this pesto, there’s no way arugula will ever be left sitting my fridge!
More Arugula Recipes
- Autumn persimmon arugula pasta
- Asian summer salad with marinated steak
- Ricotta flatbread
- Salumi mozzarella sandwich
Fusilli with Arugula Pesto and Sun Dried Tomatoes
Ingredients
Arugula Pesto:
- 3 whole garlic cloves, peeled
- ½ cup pine nuts, , lightly toasted
- 4 cups arugula*, packed
- ½ cup parmesan cheese
- 5 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- juice from 1 lemon
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- kosher salt, to taste
Remaining components:
- 16 oz dry fusilli pasta
- 1 cup reserved pasta cooking water
- 6 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
- ⅓ cup sun-dried tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- shaved pecorino romano cheese, to garnish
Instructions
- Fill a large pot with water. Salt to taste. Bring to a boil.
- In a food processor, mince garlic. Add toasted pine nuts and 1 cup of arugula. Pulse machine until arugula has broken down. Continue to add arugula in batches until finely minced. Add grated parmesan cheese.
- With the food processor running, add the olive oil in a steady, slow stream. Scrape down bowl as needed to ensure even mixture. Add lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Continue to process until mixture is smooth
- Cook fusilli in the boiling salted water according to package directions. Before draining pasta, reserve 1 cup of pasta water.
- In a large saute pan, toss the cooked pasta with arugula pesto. Add grated parmesan cheese. Add enough of the reserved pasta water to thin out pesto into a nice cream sauce. Toss until combined. Season with black pepper, to taste. Divide pasta into servings. Top with chopped sun-dried tomatoes and shaved pecorino romano cheese.
Notes
- Walnuts may be used in place of pine nuts.
- This recipe works with any variety of arugula. Keep in mind that each variety has distinct flavors. Wild arugula and wild rocket arugula are known for its strong, pepper flavor. Common arugula, the version most commonly found in grocery stores, has a mild, slightly nuttier flavor compared to wild arugula.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
I buy salad mixes too but I fill my salads with tasty stuff so that the leaves are less than 50% of the salad. We have a bunny who will gladly eat up our unwanted greens so there’s no chance that salad goes to waste in this house. I like the idea of arugula pesto though. What a tasty way to eat greens.
Your bunny is so cute! Too bad my dog doesn’t like greens.
Thank you for making my lunch today a little less satisfying; Now all I can think about is pesto! Looking forward to making this at home. Great pics Little Epicurean!
Thank you, Xander!