Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta with Blistered Tomatoes

By Maria Lichty

Updated August 08, 2020

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Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta with Blistered Tomatoes-the avocado is the secret ingredient to making this pesto super creamy and delicious! Your family will love this easy pasta dish!

Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta

Don’t you love comfort foods that are secretly healthy? That’s how this Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta is. It gets a thick, creamy texture from avocado, and the addition of spinach brightens the color and ups the healthiness even more! This is a weeknight classic that your entire family will enjoy. Our boys love this pesto pasta and they have no idea it’s made with healthy avocado and spinach! YAY!

How to Make Avocado Pesto

Avocado is what makes this pesto super creamy, not heavy cream or butter. It gives you those healthy fats! I sneak in spinach too because adding more greens is always a good idea.

This avocado pesto is so easy to make, it’s as easy as adding ingredients into your food processor or blender! To make the avocado pesto, you will need:

1. Fresh basil
2. Spinach leaves
3. Avocado
4. Garlic
5. Lemon juice
6. Parmesan cheese (or nutritional yeast if you need the pesto to be vegan!)
7. Olive oil
8. Salt and pepper

..and then just blend everything until it’s smooth!

Vegan Pesto Pasta

One simple swap turns this into a VEGAN Pesto Pasta! The secret? Use nutritional yeast instead of Parmesan. This keeps you from losing out on any amazing flavor while making a totally vegan dish. You can find nutritional yeast at most grocery stores now. I love it!

What Pasta is Best with Pesto?

Really, you can serve this with any kind of pasta you like best! I usually use Fusili since it has tiny ridges for the pesto to cling to, and you get more delicious flavor in every bite. Other pastas I love with pesto:

• Penne
• Macaroni
• Farfalle
• Orecchiette
• Rigatoni
• Zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash for an all-veggie option!

How to Blister Tomatoes

I love slow roasted tomatoes, but sometimes I don’t have time for slow roasting. When I am short on time, I blister my tomatoes on the stove top. The flavor is fantastic and it only takes about 5 minutes! This simple step that adds a really great depth of flavor to this Avocado Pesto Pasta. Give it a try!

1. Start with grape or cherry tomatoes
2. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat.
3. Add tomatoes and garlic, then season with salt and pepper. It’s going to start smelling AMAZING!
4. Cook, stirring frequently, until tomatoes start to blister and pop.
5. Discard the garlic and serve the blistered tomatoes on top of your Avocado Pesto Pasta. Yum!

More Pasta Recipes:

If you love this Avocado Pesto Pasta, check out some of my other pasta dishes!

• Pasta Primavera
• 5-Ingredient Spinach Parmesan Pasta
• Spinach Pistachio Pesto Pasta
• Pasta Fagioli
• Chicken Parmesan Baked Pasta
• Pasta Pomodoro
• One Pot Sausage Pasta

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Pasta

Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta with Blistered Tomatoes

Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta with Blistered Tomatoes-the avocado is the secret ingredient to making this pesto super creamy and delicious! Your family will love this easy pasta dish!

4.67 from 6 votes

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Cuisine Italian

Servings 6

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

  

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For the Creamy Pesto:

• 1 cup packed basil leaves
• 1 cup packed spinach leaves
• 1/2 large avocado
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the Pasta and Tomatoes:

• 12 oz pasta
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Crushed red pepper flakes, for garnish, optional
• Basil leaves, for garnish, optional
• Parmesan cheese, for garnish, optional

Instructions

 

• First, make the creamy avocado pesto. In a food processor, add the basil, spinach, avocado, garlic, lemon juice, parmesan cheese, and olive oil. Blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Set aside.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta until al dente according to package directions. Reserve ½ cup of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and transfer to a large bowl.
• While the pasta is cooking, cook the tomatoes. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the tomatoes and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until the tomatoes blister and start to pop, about 5 minutes. Discard the garlic.
• Add the creamy pesto to the large bowl of pasta. Stir, adding the reserved pasta water as necessary. Stir until the pasta is well coated in pesto. Top with blistered tomatoes. Garnish with crushed red pepper flakes, basil and parmesan cheese, if using. Serve immediately.

Notes

Note-to make this recipe vegan, use nutritional yeast for the parmesan cheese. You can also use zucchini noodles instead of pasta.

Nutrition

Calories: 337kcal, Carbohydrates: 48g, Protein: 10g, Fat: 12g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 4mg, Sodium: 77mg, Potassium: 434mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 4g, Vitamin A: 1397IU, Vitamin C: 16mg, Calcium: 84mg, Iron: 1mg

Keywords vegetarian

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