Warm Caprese Pesto Pasta

February 7, 2018 By Kristen Stevens

This super simple yet crazy delicious Caprese Pesto Pasta is as good as it gets. The lemony pesto is a creamy blender pesto that is so easy to make. Pour that over pasta and toss with some sauteed cherry tomatoes and mozzarella and dinner is served. It's the perfect Meatless Monday vegetarian supper recipe.

| vegetarian + gluten-free + vegan adaptable |

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All the stars have aligned, my friends! I am finally sharing my all-time favorite quick and easy pasta recipe. This should have happened years ago. I'm sorry for holding out on you.

This is one of those meals that hardly registers as a recipe in our house. It's usually my handsome man who whips up the pesto while I put a pot of water on to boil and quickly sear the tomatoes. It's what we eat when we're HUNGRY and need to eat right freaking now.

It's also a meal we swoon over every time we eat it. Seriously, it's so delicious.

Around here we simply call it pesto. For the sake of fancying things up a little, today I'm calling it Warm Caprese Pesto Pasta.

Watch the video! {1 min}

When Chickapea Pasta reached out to team up again on another recipe post, I knew right away this Caprese Pesto Pasta was what I wanted to make. (BTW the last recipe I made with their delish gluten-free pasta was this Deliciously Rich Lentil Bolognese.)

Have you tried Chickapea yet? It's my absolute fav gluten-free pasta. It holds its shape well when cooked and the texture is perfect. It reminds me of whole wheat pasta, which I love.

It's made with lentil and chickpeas (that's it!) so it's super healthy for you. Pairing it with a vegetarian or vegan sauce is perfect as Chickapea Pasta is packed full of protein.

We often eat their Penne and Spirals, but for this Caprese Pesto Pasta, I love to use their Shells. All the creamy pesto hides inside in the shells so you get lots of pesto. The more pesto the better!

Watch the video! {1 min}

It's all about the pesto.

The pesto here is all my handsome man's. I can't take credit for it. Before we met, I made pesto quite differently. It was roughly chopped and had lots of texture to it. It was nothing like the brightly colored creamy pesto you see here.

Fast forward a few years and this is the only pesto recipe I now make. It's simply too delicious to ever go back to my old recipe. It's also ridiculously easy to make. Here's how you do it:

→ Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth.

That's it! I'm totally serious. One step and done.

You'll notice a few things are different about this pesto recipe.

1. There's parsley in here. And no, that's not a typo. It helps make the pesto the vibrant green color you see. You can leave it out, but it won't be quite as pretty.

2. We don't use pine nuts. Or at least not always. Let's be honest, pine nuts are ridic expensive. While I love them, I can't always bring myself to use them. We've tried many different combinations of nuts and they all work great. We love using half almonds and half walnuts the best.

3. We toast the nuts. Always. It adds so much more flavor to the pesto.

4. There's water in this recipe. This is because the pesto needs to blend freely to get totally smooth and become pourable. You could add more oil, but honestly, water works just as well.

For more delicious Chickapea Pasta recipes, make sure to follow The Endless Meal on Facebook. I'll be sharing more great Chickapea recipes from other bloggers there!

If you love this Warm Caprese Pesto Pasta as much as I do, make sure to give it a 5-star review in the comments below!