• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Bet On Dinner

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Browse Recipes
  • About
  • Store
  • Meal Planning

Pesto Pasta with Burst Tomatoes.

0 · Jul 15, 2016 · 2 Comments

Quick and full of summer flavor, pesto pasta with burst tomatoes is easy and delicious.

The irony of this post is that it has taken me a Whole Lot Longer to find time (and, you know, 2 hands) to type it than it did to actually make and consume. Pesto pasta is a great summer meal since it’s ready in the time it takes to cook the noodles, which is a plus in my book (even when I’m not holding/wearing/feeding a newborn)!

So: start the water to cook your pasta. Whip up the pesto (or you can buy it – but it really does only take 5 minutes).

Quick and full of summer flavor, pesto pasta with burst tomatoes is easy and delicious.

Heat up a skillet with olive oil and toss in cherry or grape tomatoes. Let them cook for a few minutes with salt and pepper until their skins begin to split and burst. (Even if you’re not exactly paying attention, you’ll hear them start to sizzle more earnestly as their juices leak out!)

Quick and full of summer flavor, pesto pasta with burst tomatoes is easy and delicious.

See how some of the skins have split open? Keep going until all the tomatoes have burst. They don’t continue cooking when you add the pasta, so don’t be afraid of overcooking them.

Drain the pasta, and save some of the cooking water! It’s the perfect thing to toss with the pasta + pesto to smooth things out and help it all get coated. I added a few tablespoons of it right to the skillet to deglaze it and get all that good tomato flavor, then dumped in the pasta and added dollops of pesto, tossing everything gently together. Taste a noodle or two and adjust if you need to (more pesto, more cooking water, salt and pepper…), then serve it with an extra sprinkle of Parmesan cheese!

Quick and full of summer flavor, pesto pasta with burst tomatoes is easy and delicious.

I love the sweet summer tomatoes with the intense flavors of the pesto – so much basil, so much salty Parm, a little punch of garlic – yum. We ate it as a meatless meal, but pesto pasta is also a great side dish to serve with grilled chicken (or cook some quick and easy pan-seared chicken, right in the skillet before the tomatoes, and slice it up on top of the pasta).

Print

Pesto Pasta with Burst Tomatoes.

  • Author: Bet Denton
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: serves 2 as a main dish or 4 as a side dish
Print
Pin

Ingredients

  • 6 oz of pasta (I used whole wheat spirals)
  • 1 recipe basil pesto (you’ll probably have some left over, depending on how generous you are with it!) or storebought pesto
  • olive oil
  • cherry or grape tomatoes (I used a little less than a pint)
  • salt and pepper
  • extra Parmesan cheese, for sprinkling

Instructions

  1. Bring salted water to a boil. Make the pesto. Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
  2. About halfway through the pasta cooking time, heat a large skillet over medium heat with a tablespoon or two or olive oil. Add the tomatoes with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and let them cook for several minutes until their skins begin to split and burst (you’ll hear increased sizzling as this happens).
  3. Drain the pasta, reserving some of the cooking water. Add a few tablespoons of the water directly to the skillet with the cooked tomatoes, scraping up any browned bits.
  4. Add the cooked pasta and several dollops of pesto and gently toss to coat the pasta. Add more cooking water, a tablespoon at a time, if needed to help the pesto spread out evenly. Taste and add salt and pepper and/or more pesto if needed.
  5. Serve with extra Parmesan cheese!

Notes

This is a great meatless meal, but it’s also good with cooked chicken tossed in with the pasta, or as a side dish to any meat!

SaveSave

0
Sharing is caring!

You might also like:

  • Pasta with Peas and Bacon.
  • A bowl of homemade spaghettis with teeny pasta shapes and a cheesy tomato sauce
    Homemade Spaghettios.
  • Nana's spaghetti sauce is thick, meaty, and hearty, and I love to make a big batch and stock my freezer with it!
    Nana's Spaghetti Sauce.

Dinner, Meatless, Recipes, Summer Recipes, Veggies & Sides Dinner, Meatless, Pasta, Pesto, Tomatoes

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Barb Ingram says

    July 15, 2016 at 6:07 pm

    Looks and sounds glorious! And PS I love the way you write!

    Reply
    • Bet says

      July 22, 2016 at 8:15 pm

      Thanks Mom! :o) That was much-needed encouragement since I wrote it with many interruptions… ;o)

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

Primary Sidebar

About Me

Hey, I’m Bet! I love food and welcoming family and friends to the table with it. This is where I share what we’re eating – mostly “real”, family-friendly, doable dinners, plus breakfast foods, snacks, and of course, my favorite homemade sweet treats. I love to meal plan, hoard freezer meals, and include my girls in the cooking process as much as I can (while still preserving a little sanity). Thanks for visiting – I hope you find some new favorite recipes here!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Let’s keep in touch!

Get new recipes in your inbox.




Popular Right Now

  • Homemade Spaghettios.
    Homemade Spaghettios.
  • Soy Sauce & Honey Marinated Flank Steak.
    Soy Sauce & Honey Marinated Flank Steak.
  • Sweet Onion Dressing.
    Sweet Onion Dressing.
  • Pumpkin Bread.
    Pumpkin Bread.
  • Healthy Banana Applesauce Muffins.
    Healthy Banana Applesauce Muffins.







Footer

Instagram

Instagram did not return a 200.
  • Home
  • About
  • Alphabetical Recipe Index
  • Visual Recipe Index

Copyright © 2022 · Seasoned Pro