Spaghetti with spinach pesto and prawns

If pasta is already a dish that everyone likes, when you prepare it with a mild pesto and accompany it with prawns the result ends up being spectacular. It is a recipe by Virginia, from Sweet&Sour , that you will have ready in a few minutes and without complications. Go ahead and prepare it, you will love it!

Pols Ceramic Plates

Today's recipe is quick and delicious and, despite being pasta-based, it is light, so you can use it on a hot day or just to enjoy a typical autumn day.

These are spaghetti to which we have added a somewhat special and milder pesto than the traditional Genoese basil pesto , since we prepare it basically with spinach and by incorporating it fresh, we take advantage of all the vitamins and minerals that we lose when cooking them .

To complete the recipe we have added some prawns which not only provide a contrast of colour, but also the nutritional balance of the protein. Vegans or vegetarians can substitute them with toffu, meat or whatever they like best.

The pesto recipe is almost exactly followed in the book "Pasta Fresca" by the Simili Sisters , a reference when it comes to pasta, although I couldn't resist changing it up a bit and adding a handful of pine nuts.

You can use this pesto with dry pasta, fresh pasta you prepare at home, and even gnocchi, because it is very versatile. It keeps for a long time stored in an airtight jar and covered with a layer of oil.

Let's go with the recipe!

Ingredients (For 4 servings)

• 300gr of spaghetti
• 3 liters of water
• 12 cooked prawns
• 100g of tender spinach leaves, clean and dry if possible in a vegetable centrifuge
• 50gr of Trioliva oil
• 15gr of fresh basil leaves
• 35gr grated Parmiagiano Reggiano cheese*
• 25gr of Pecorino cheese*
• 25gr of pine nuts toasted in a pan and cold
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 small clove of garlic
• salt and pepper
• Pasta cooking water

*Pecorino cheese is a little spicier than Parmiagiano, but if you can't find it, just add the latter. The cheese should be grated, you can use the best grater, the Microplane Zester .

Cocotte "Le Creuset" , Triana glass and Pols Ceramic plates

Preparation

1. Place the spinach, garlic (without germ), parsley, basil and toasted pine nuts in the food processor and blend. This step can also be done in the traditional way with a mortar , but it will take longer.
2. Next we add the olive oil , salt and pepper and beat until creamy.
3. Place in a bowl and add the cheeses. Mix well to obtain a creamy paste.
4. Once the pesto is ready, cook the pasta in plenty of salted water in the "Le Creuset" cocotte for the time indicated by the manufacturer to leave it al dente.
5. Once the pasta is ready, pour it onto a hot dish, in my case I used the Emilie Henry ceramic oven tray , and add the reserved pesto. If necessary, lengthen the pasta with a little of the pasta cooking water, which we will not have thrown away.
6. We add the cooked and peeled prawns and serve them on hot plates, in my case, this gorgeous one from Pols Ceramic , which with its rustic but elegant touch, is ideal. We accompany it with a bowl of more freshly grated cheese.

Pols Ceramic plates , Microplane Zester grater , Simili Sisters' Pasta Fresca book , Trilloliva oil and Emile Henry ceramic tray

A light pasta dish with lots of flavour and colour , which you will prepare in the blink of an eye.

Enjoy.

Virginia