How to Make Pesto Make this Spinach Pesto Pasta

Every week we buy a bunch of spinach and by the end of the week it's still there. So today we're eating all of it. Today I'm making a spinach pesto and I think you guys are really going to love this recipe because there's a good chance you probably have some spinach in the fridge and you don't know what to do with it. A lot of times we buy it in the beginning of the week and we have kind of like wishful thinking. We say we're going to add it in salads, on the side of meats, and then by the end of the week literally the spinach is still sitting there. So I call this like the Friday night special because usually on Friday nights it's like let's just whip up together whatever we have in the fridge and chances are that we open the fridge and the spinach is still sitting there in the corner untouched. So today we're going to make a spinach pesto. We're going to do it with pasta but this recipe is really versatile because you could use it over pasta. You could put it as a spread over bread. There's a lot of different things you could do with it. So let's put this together. The first thing you're going to need is spinach and it doesn't have to be spinach that's going bad. You can go out and buy some fresh spinach. So we have spinach, grated cheese, fresh basil, lemon, some pine nuts, and garlic. And if you don't have pine nuts you could really use any nut. Walnut, almonds, just a little bit just to bring in that nutty flavor. And then we have olive oil, salt, and pepper and that's it. So we're pretty much just going to take this and put it in a blender and blend it up. And if you don't have a blender you could use a big pitcher like this and an immersion blender. It's a lot easier. Like my blender's tucked in like a hidden corner of the cabinet so this was easy access. So we're just going to go in here. I'll link these in the description if you guys are interested. I know sometimes people ask. I'll tell my wife to link them in the description. So we're going to go into this pitcher in this order. We're going to start off with cheese, basil. Now we'll go in with the pine nuts and the garlic. And if you like garlic you could add a little extra. And now we're just going to stuff it with the spinach. And it looks like there's going to be a lot of pesto in here but you guys know how spinach goes. It just shrinks down to nothing. So you really got to just press it in there. Just stuff it. Now we'll go in with the second one that we didn't eat. And this recipe is also great. It stays like this pesto will stay fresh for a few days in the fridge. And if you want to freeze it you could freeze it. And you could even like make this on a Monday. And then just kind of incorporate it throughout the week. So you're getting your greens in. Because a lot of times I think that's like the hardest thing trying to get more greens into the diet. So just like blend it up. It's like the easiest way. So we got all the spinach in. Now we're going to go in with some lemon. So this is going to kind of brighten it up a little bit. We're just going to use half of a lemon. And we'll squeeze some in there. And the lemon will really carry through. So even though I'm just squeezing half a lemon in it's you're going to taste it. So don't go too crazy on the lemon. And then olive oil. I'm going to put about a quarter cup in the recipe. But you got to kind of use your judgment on how much olive oil you're going to put in here. If you're going to be making this pesto with pasta you don't need that much olive oil. Because you're going to use the pasta water to kind of loosen it up. But if you're just making this as a pesto that you want to spread on bread and things like that you're definitely going to have to add a little more olive oil. And then the last thing we're going to do is just season it up with a little salt and pepper. And that's it. And then there's one final like little chef trick here. When you're blending this it tends to get hot. So what I'm going to do is just add in a few ice cubes. I'll add it in two, three. And this will keep it cold and it'll keep it green while we're blending it. So if you're putting it over pasta it really doesn't matter. It could go dark. You don't really need that really bright green. But if you're going to use this as a pesto to spread over bread you definitely want that nice vibrant green color. So putting a few ice cubes in here keeps it cold and it'll keep it green. Now we're going to go in with the immersion blender. And you know you're getting old when you're you know this. This is the fun part. You know you have fun with kitchen gadgets. And it takes a little time until you really get through here. But eventually you just keep pressing and going down and down. Eventually you'll get to the cheese and then it'll get nice and creamy in here. I'll show you the consistency in here. And you can see it's pretty creamy. You also want to do a little taste test. You can see that vibrant green color. You want to taste it. Make sure you have enough salt. If it needs more oil, more lemon. This looks, this tastes really good. You would think it would really blast you with spinach but it really doesn't. The cheese and the olive oil and everything else kind of tones it down. So this is perfect. And we're just going to set this aside now. And we'll cook some pasta. So we'll salt the water and we'll drop in the pasta. You could really use any pasta you want for this. But we're going with spaghetti. And once you drop the pasta in you know you have about eight minutes and then dinner's ready. So that's really why I really like this recipe because it's quick you know. And especially if you make this and you have this in the fridge ready to go. All you have to do is just make some pasta. So it's even easier. So we're going really heavy on the spinach pesto. So I'm going to pour this into a bowl. But before I pour it into this bowl I want to go into this little bowl right here and just have a little bit extra on the side. You just dip some bread in there and then we'll go with the rest in here. We got some in there. We'll spread a little bit on this bread. We'll spread a little bit on here. And you can see really see the beautiful color in this. And that the ice the ice cubes really keep it green. So definitely if you're blending it up and you want to use it as a spread and you want this beautiful green color. Definitely have to put the ice cubes in the blender while you're blending it. And this is like a little little snack a little appetizer while we wait for the pasta to cook. And you could really use this as like a spread for a sandwich. I just thought of that. Next week we're going to make sandwiches with this. Just spread it on the bread. And then you really goes with I would say really any any cold cut. What do you think Jess? I think I think like turkey would be nice with this because turkey is pretty boring. And then you put this pesto on there. It's really good. And I think this is great too because you know if you're making a basil pesto think about how much basil you actually need to make this much pesto. But with spinach you really get you know it goes far. It goes really far in this. So the pasta is ready and now what we're going to do is just we're going to add it right to this bowl. And the heat from the pasta is going to heat up the pesto. And kind of like lightly cook the spinach so you're not eating raw spinach in this. And we'll go in with a scoop of pasta water. Just kind of loosen it up. That's really it. We're just going to mix this up. And then we could add more pasta water if we need to. We're just going to go in and mix. And as you can see we really went heavy on the spinach in here. So I think we could give this one a nickname. We'll call it Popeye's pasta because if Popeye was Italian this would definitely be the pasta he's making. And his wife olive oil would probably prepare this with a little extra olive oil knowing her. And this is just really good. And I think this is really one of those meals that you feed your whole family. You know pound the pasta. A couple packs of spinach that are going bad. You know and look at this. You got this beautiful pasta dish that really tastes fresh. It tastes like summer. So this looks pretty good. So now we're going to get this on a plate. And what I really love about this pasta is that it looks really good. It plates really well. You see that bright green color. And I'm telling you I know it looks really good but it tastes even better. So good. I think this is the best way to eat your greens with pasta. So if you're trying to eat your greens like I am, I have another pasta video linked right here. It's a pasta with peas. That one's really good. This one is really really good. I'm telling you if you make this one you're going to be surprised at how much flavor there is and also how easy it is to make. So and if you make it you might eat your greens for the whole week in one day. So I'm not kidding. So let me know how you guys like it in the comments. Don't forget to hit the bell, like and subscribe.