pasta with pesto - do you add anything else?

[lunavix]

I haven't been on the ball with dinner and every meal we have for this week requires hours of cooking.

We have a jar of sundried tomato pesto, and we have some pasta.. I've heard a lot of people talk about pasta and pesto! Do you add anything else?

toasted pine nuts are good but it doesn't need anything else.

make sure you put drained pasta back in pan and stir pesto in over the heat till it's all coated - pesto dolloped on top is rank IMO.

we add frozen peas to ours

Green pest with broccoli is quite nice.

Black olives with the red one. Although that depens on how keen you are on olives.

Personally my favourite is to add onion and cabbage stir fried in olive oil plus a tin of kidney beans and a handful of black olives. Yum.

spinach
feta
bacon

we just have pasta and pesto but with loads of parmesan on top and a nice glass of red smile]

obviously

green veg

cheese

possibly crusty garlic bread

wine

I sometimes pan-fry some chicken, mushrooms and onions and stir these through

Normally just a sprinkle of grated cheese.

A bit of cream if I am feeling indulgent.

Some sliced red pepper if I can be arsed.

Some chicken strips if I am really going for it.

DS's favourite.

We someitmes have it with broccoli and mushrooms

Often add cherry tomatoes. Sometimes add rocket (both after pesto and cook for a minute or two). Occasionally if I have any I might add mascapone cheese to make creamy pesto sauce. Then parmesan / cheddar.

Lots of extra parmesan on top, good with mushrooms and onions, also add a little greek yoghurt to make it creamy

Salad on the side and a nice glass of red [mmm]

I add shallots and grated cheese.

I add chopped up ham / and / or / sliced courgettes and mushrooms. LOVE pesto pasta but it is tres fattening!

lurve green one - my kids LIVE on the stuff

chicken and cashews
mmmmmmmmm

grate some cheese on top
we make our own

Chopped up smoke ham, pine nuts, mushrooms, bit of creme fraiche. Yum. But that's with the green one.

Smoked.

Mmm, fry, in a little olive oil, some chopped smoked bacon, courgettes and cherry toms, mix in pesto (red or green) and I usually add some water from the cooking pasta as I like a lot of sauce.

A simple variation is to add the pesto to a tub of creme fraiche and tin of butter beans -heat through and stir in to the cooked pasta.

Sprinkle with toasted pine nuts and parmesan.