Pesto Pasta with Shrimp and Peaswith strawberry, fennel, arugula salad
If you made fresh pesto ahead of time, this summery pasta dish will come together in a flash. The salad on the side gets balance with strawberries for sweetness and fennel for a naturally spicy bite.
Ingredients
- Pine nuts - 2 Tbsp (sub walnuts or pecans)
- Garlic - 1 clove, peeled
- Cheese, parmesan (opt) - 1 oz, grated
- Basil, fresh - 1 1/2 oz
- Lemon juice - 2 tsp
- Oil, olive - 3 Tbsp
- Shrimp, peeled and deveined - 1 lb
- Peas, frozen - 1 1/2 cups
- Pasta, uncooked shells - 8 oz (sub any small pasta shape)
- Oil, cooking - 1 Tbsp
- Basil Pesto (ingredients listed separately) - ~1/4 cup
- Cheese, parmesan - 2 oz, grated
- Vinegar, apple cider - 1 Tbsp
- Mustard, Dijon - 2 tsp
- Honey - 1 tsp
- Oil, olive - 3 Tbsp
- Fennel, small - 1 bulb, thinly sliced
- Strawberries - 1 pint, quartered
- Arugula - 5 oz
- Black pepper (opt) - for serving
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Shrimp - Defrost shrimp. Pat dry and season with some salt and pepper.
- Peas - Defrost peas.
- Pasta - Cook pasta according to package directions. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Make pesto - (Skip if pesto was made ahead for Monday.) Toast nuts in a dry skillet or frying pan until fragrant and golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Peel garlic cloves. Place nuts, garlic, cheese (portion for pesto, if using), basil leaves, and lemon juice in a food processor. Pulse until all ingredients are well chopped. With food processor running, drizzle in olive oil (portion for pesto) until smooth. Season to taste with some salt and pepper. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Make vinaigrette - Whisk together cider vinegar, mustard, and honey. Add olive oil (portion for salad) while whisking. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Fennel / Strawberries - Prep as directed.
Make
- Combine fennel, strawberries, and arugula in a bowl.
- Heat a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add cooking oil and then shrimp. Saute shrimp until opaque and nearly cooked through.
- Add peas and cooked pasta to shrimp and stir for 1 minute, to warm everything up. Remove from heat and stir in pesto. Taste and season with some salt and pepper.
- Toss salad with vinaigrette and top with black pepper.
- Serve pasta with cheese (portion for pasta) grated over top. Enjoy pasta with salad on the side.
Reviews
This meal has 28 reviews
Quick and easy to make with store-bought pesto. The pasta was a little lacking in flavor on its own, but when eaten in conjunction with the salad it was flavorful enough and I enjoyed the meal as a whole!
Thought the pasta was great. Had to improvise with the salad because my strawberries went bad before I got a chance to use them in this recipe. Used sliced nectarines instead. Arugula was also on the verge of going bad. If you buy your ingredients at the beginning of the week for all the week’s recipes, you can’t wait too long to use them up, some of the produce goes bad fast!
The pesto sauce seemed to be lacking a little bit. Perhaps more bazil would do it. The shrimp and peas came together really nicely though!
Not a big fan of the pasta. Tasted very bland to me.
Used store-bought pesto because my grocery only carried tiny amounts of basil for $$$$. Worked great - my 6-year-old asked for fourths. Success!
This is a new favorite! My pesto came out great.