SUMMER! BASIL! PESTO! Are we there yet? Um, nearly. Can you tell I’m excited about it? Give me a few days of 75 degree weather and I’m plunging straight into July. YAH SUMMER!
Seriously though. I am excited for summer, and living in Portland for my first summer since … Um… the 90s? Scratch that, I spent one summer — after I graduated from high school — in Portland, but other than that I spent all of my summers in Colorado, then moved away! NOW I’M BACK! I’m so excited! I’m especially excited that I’ll have access to my Mom’s garden/farm. It’s really a garden, but MAN does she crank out the produce! I’m going to come raid it regularly and take home veggies and herbs in abundance! Thanks in advance, Mom!
While the basil may not be in full force (YET!), her freezer still has plenty of frozen pesto made from last year’s crop. WIN WIN WIN! I love pesto! LOVE IT. But you know what I also like? A thicker pasta sauce. Pesto has the flavor to beat everyone else, but I always find myself wanting more SAUCE. A saucier sauce. Oooh yeah!
With that in mind, I set out to make a really simple creamy pesto sauce. This is the simplest fix ever: just make a simple white sauce (butter, flour, milk) and add in your normal pesto. Thick, creamy, pesto-y goodness! It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s a total crowd-pleaser. Especially if I’m part of the crowd. Mmmm!
If you wanted to be really fancy (or just a cheese-lover), you could throw in a bunch of parmesan, too! I know there’s already some parm in pesto, but you could take it up a notch if you wanted to. I didn’t (this time), but definitely thought about it!
Go whip this up! Enjoy your intro to summer! xo
- 3 Tbsp butter
- 3 Tbsp flour
- 1½ cups milk, warmed
- ⅓ cup fresh pesto
- salt & pepper
- 10 oz. cooked pasta
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Whisking constantly, add the flour to make a roux. Cook for about 2 minutes, whisking, before you begin to add the milk.
- Slowly add the milk, whisking to fully incorporate, until it is all in the sauce. Bring to a simmer, and cook until thickened (it should be very quick).
- Stir in the fresh pesto, extra parmesan (if using), and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour over cooked pasta, stir, and enjoy!
THANK YOU. I adore pesto, but I always want there to be a bit more oomf when I put it on pasta, you know? Also, I’m sure you’ve done this before, but if you haven’t make sure you put pesto on your next sandwich. It’s a game changer, trust me.
Nice! Thanks, Claire!
Wow, that looks AMAZING! I’m going to have to make this for my husband (who is a GIGANTIC pesto lover) this week! Whoo!
Thanks, Amanda! Enjoy!! xo
I love this recipe and I am wondering if we can freeze the sauce?
Thanks!
Hi Caroline — I don’t have any experience freezing this sauce… so I’m really not sure! I know pesto freezes wonderfully, but I’ve never frozen a cream sauce. Let me know how it goes, if you try! xo
So I go into the freezer to grab some pesto for my pasta, and *gasp*, I only have two frozen cubes left from last summer’s pesto! Oh wait! I’ll use that recipe Mary posted awhile back to make white sauce first 🙂 And I guess its time to harvest and make another batch of pesto…
Haha! Glad I could help with that TERRIFYING situation! I hope it turned out okay 🙂 And YES — time to make more!! xo
Just made this for dinner and it was yummy! I did make a few changes though since I had many mouths to feed – doubled the amount of pesto, added a half cup of ricotta cheese and a half bunch of baby spinach. Used more pasta than called for as well. Delicious!
Sounds like a delicious variation, Nikki! Thanks for sharing! xo