Zesty pesto and mozzarella pearl pasta salad

A quick and easy, vibrant green homemade pesto sauce wraps around each pasta shape, mixed together with peas and spinach and topped with toasted pine nuts and creamy mozzarella pearls, this is a fresh and light pasta salad packed with flavour. Ready in less than 30 minutes and great to make ahead and enjoy throughout the week by itself or as a side.

Time to make : 30 minutes

Serves : 4 large - 6 sides

Ingredients

300g fusilli pasta

100g frozen peas

30g Parmesan cheese

40g pine nuts

150g (drained weight) mozzarella pearls

Handful of spinach

Basil, to garnish

Pesto

70g basil leaves*

2 cloves of garlic

40g pine nuts

60g Parmesan cheese

100ml olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and pepper, to season

Method

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Add in 2 tsp of salt and then add in the pasta, cook for the full time according to packet instructions (we don’t want al dente pasta here). Add in the frozen peas when the pasta has 3 minutes left and once cooked, reserve 90ml of the pasta water and then drain the rest into a colander, running the pasta and peas under cold water to cool.

2. Whilst the pasta is boiling, dry-toast the pine nuts in a frying pan over a high heat. Remove from the heat once golden and tip onto a plate to cool. Half of them will go in the pesto sauce, the other half we’ll use to garnish. 

3. Add the pesto ingredients into a small food processor or Nutribullet/blender along with the 90ml reserved pasta water and blitz until smooth. Taste to season. 

4. Add the drained pasta and peas into a large bowl along with the spinach and mozzarella pearls. Pour over the pesto and stir to mix. Top with torn fresh basil, toasted pine nuts and cracked black pepper.

Nutritional information:

(per large serve)

590 cals

26g fat, 40g carbs, 16g protein

Good to know:

• Vegetarian. To make this vegan, use nutritional yeast instead of Parmesan cheese and skip the mozzarella.

• To make this gluten-free, use certified GF pasta.

• Don’t worry about weighing your basil leaves, bagged herbs in supermarkets are usually in 35g bags or use 1 x potted supermarket herb plant.

• Enjoy by itself or as a side to grilled chicken, salmon or tofu. This salad is also great with the addition of  sun-dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, olives, croutons, white beans or use a rocket salad instead of spinach.

• This stores really well with no need to seperate any of the ingredients. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.